The ACT allowed three main methods of submission including printed manuscripts to provide the maximum advantage to authors. However, after 10-year experience, electronic manuscript submission was found to be the most efficient for authors and for ACT's processing and publishing.

Authors may submit the manuscript using our interactive forms and uploading system (this is the fastest and safest way for submission). Alternatively, in case the author does not have access to (or would not rely on) Internet and E-mail, the submission may be by the conventional mail using CD-R (ISO 9660 format) . These media will not be returned to the author. The package should be accompanied by a cover letter addressed to:

Dr. S. Ohno, ACT Editorial Secretary
Japan Concrete Institute, Sogo-Hanzomon bldg. 12F,
1-7 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083, Japan


PREPARATION OF PDF FILE FOR SUBMISSION

File Format of Electronic Manuscripts
For the initial submission, the preferred format for the manuscript is a single PDF (Portable File Format) document containing text and equations followed by tables and artworks. PDF files can be created directly out of MS Word documents or PostScript files using our interactive forms and uploading system.

For the final submission, MS Word document is the preferred format for the manuscript text, equtions, tables and artwork. In summary, PDF in the initial submission will speed up the reviewing process. On contrary, for the final submission, PDF files add substantial editorial work and publishing overhead.

Manuscript Layout and Typescript
･For Microsoft Word Files
The manuscript text should be single-spaced, single-column format with generous margins. Use standard font families (Times, Helvetica, Arial or Symbol) with 12-point size for the entire text. Use italics for mathematical symbols (not for abbreviated name of functions such as sin, log) as well as title of journals and books. Use boldface for title and headings as well as to denote vectors and matrices in mathematics. Use subscripts and superscripts for indices in mathematical and chemical symbols (d_ij, A_s, t², f') or others when required (m², °C). Most other formatting options such as hyphenation and justification will have to be removed and replaced during the processing of the article, hence keep the layout as simple as possible.
Do not embed artwork (figures, charts and drawings) in the text. Instead, indicate the preferred position using logical numbering and appropriate caption text (Fig. 2, Table 3). Do not embed "graphically designed" equations and tables. Equation should be prepared using MS Equation Editor or MathType. Tables should be prepared using the MS Word and use grids or tabs to separate columns instead of spaces.


PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscript Requirements
･Length
Manuscripts should not exceed 10, 000 words or word-equivalents in length. Lengthy contributions may be reviewed after preliminary editorial decision based on budget, journal style, relevance and composition of the article. The editor will reserve the rights to remove tables, charts or any artwork considered by the referees as unnecessary for the clear understanding of the subject. The article may be accepted after reviewing if the length is judged adequate to succinctly treatment of the subject. The time of publication in this case may be longer than the other papers.
Preferably, estimate the length of the page using automatic word counters from word-processors. As a rough estimate a page of artwork correspond to 900 words, hence determine the length of artwork and tabular material in word-equivalents proportionally to the occupancy on a page; e.g. a figure measuring half-page in height would be equivalent to 500 words.
Discussions and closures contributions should neither include artwork nor exceed 1800 words.
･Style
The text must be in concise English and authors may adopt UK or US spelling but not combinations of both. As the ACT has an international audience, which includes non-native speakers of English, avoid colloquialisms and idioms (e.g. "connect" rather than "hook up", "system or apparatus" rather than "set up" as well as technical terms that are used only locally (e.g. "micron" obsolete technical slang used by some scientists and engineer to designate one millionth of a metre by the symbol μ, replaced in the SI by micrometre, symbol μm).
Authors may write in active or passive voice but avoiding gender specific words (midshipman, craftsman, spokesman, she, he, his) and pronouns (I, you, we, our). Gender specific words may be understood as discriminatory or sexist language. The use of pronouns often results in poor or imprecise constructions, or even mildly offensive.
e.g. When you fail to make accurate measurements...ﾉ
(inaccurate or mildly offensive)
When the measurements are not accurate...
(introducing the potential consequences of inaccurate measurements)
When the engineer fails to attain accurate measurements...ﾉ
(draw attention to the dependency on the qualifications of the professional)
The past tense is preferred to describe the actions in the development of the project or study, whereas the present tense is used to state the facts. For politeness, when referring or discussing published works particularly from primary Journals regard them as facts, i.e. in the present tense.
1.Units:
Authors must use consistent units throughout the article and according to the International System of Units (SI). Only units named for a person and when abbreviated should be capitalised (e.g. Hz, Pa, g but hertz, pascal, gram). Do not use metric prefixes such as M (Mega), m (milli), etc. when using exponential notation ("0.556 m/s" not "5.56x10^-4 km/s". Use proper abbreviations, e.g. the correct abbreviated form of "seconds" is "s" whereas "sec." means secundum in accordance with, second, section, secant). Use space between number and units and a dot, space or solidus (/) between compound units (" 2 N m", "3 kg/m³ or 3 kg m^-3).
2.Numbers:
One-digit numbers should be spelled out, except where attached to a unit of quantity (e.g., 1 mm or 3 kg) or where expressions contrast or enumerate one-digit numbers with numbers of two or more digits ("3 out of 20 specimens", "5 mortar specimens and 15 concrete specimens". Numbers of two or more digits should be rendered in digits except where the context makes this awkward (e.g., use spelt-out forms at the beginning of a sentence).
In numbers above 10 000, spaces may be used between sets of three digits but not commas (as it is a violation of international scientific and engineering practice and standards).The comma is the decimal mark in many countries and also in the SI. The SI allow the decimal point be used in publications in English with spaces for the "Thousands" (e.g. 11 012.35).
For numbers between -1 and 1, insert a zero to the left of the decimal point to make more difficult for the reader to overlook the decimal point ("0.47 not .47".
3.Quantities:
Use numbers instead of relative figures (small deformation, high stress) to present and discuss results. Relative figures are permissible only for assessing results and summarising conclusions. When intended to give a reference or assessment provide a reference value in parenthesis e.g., "...high temperatures (about 60 degree C)"
4.Abbreviations:
Abbreviations may be used only when the term appears a few times in the text and should be spelled out in full next to its first appearance, e.g. high-performance concrete (HPC) or HPC (high-performance concrete). The rule aims to prevent possible misunderstandings and redundancies e.g., HPC is also found in the literature as "high-performance cement", "Helwan Portland cemen", "hybridised Portland cement" and HSC is usually used for "high-strength concrete" but in laboratories is also used for "high-speed centrifuge" In references to the finite element method (FEM), authors often repeat the word "method" as sentences appear not read well, e.g., "The FEM method was employed for the analyses"
Abbreviations by initials should be typed with no full point (e.g., JSCE, JCI, HPC, FEM). Abbreviations in which the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the word should also have no full point (e.g., Mr, St, BUT no., str., etc.).
5.Headings:
In dividing articles under sections, make the headings indicative rather than explicative and preferably to fit in one line. Use numbering for the headings but only up to three levels (ex. 1, 2-1, (2)). Do not use the bullet.
6.Equations:
Mathematical equations should only be used where absolutely necessary, and should be clear and easily understood by engineers. Each equation must appear in a separate line and be numbered consecutively, whether the number is necessary for cross-reference in the article or not. The number may be useful for reference in future works and discussion of the article. If the authors conclude eventually that the equation would have no significance for future reference, they should consider removing the equation. Only the relevant equations should be shown in the body of the text ﾑ any development of an equation should appear, if essential, in an appendix.
7.Symbols:
Symbols occurring firstly in equations should be defined preferably in the margin below the equation, e.g., "...the stress field is proportional to the forcing function F(t) defined as:
(1)
where
a_i : response acceleration for ith mode,
q_i(t): general coordinate for ith mode."

However, if the article contain long lists of symbols accompanying mathematical developments they should not be presented in the body of the paper but at the end, in a Notation section containing all symbols. In both cases, authors must provide a notation list containing all symbols in separate page, where is necessary to define all symbols and clarify potential ambiguities in typescripts (such as the number one and the letter "ell", zero and "oh", "double you" and lowercase Greek omega, levels of subscripts, superscripts and exponents, etc.).
The symbols in the Notation section and additional list are arranged with the capital letters preceding the lower case. The Roman alphabet followed by the Greek one.
8.Tables:
Tables should read top to bottom and not left to right and each column in a table must have a heading. Avoid abbreviations and equations, but when essential use single-level equations (e.g. 1/(a + b)) and define abbreviations in the legend. Footnotes are acceptable in tables but not elsewhere.
9.Captions:
All artwork and tabular material must be identified by title with number, followed by the explanatory information. This material must not be lettered on the artwork
10.Acknowledgements:
For expressing thanks to individuals and organizations for any help, advice or financial assistance, include an Acknowledgments section after the Conclusion section. Do not make any acknowledgements in the title page or elsewhere.
11.Appendixes
Use appendixes to record details and data that are of secondary importance or that are needed to support assertions in the text. Make sure the text contains references to all appendixes. Define special symbols and other nomenclature in an Appendix.
12.Dates:
Use day-month-year system ("16 January 1990" not "January 16, 1990".


･Title of the Article
Some information-retrieval services rely exclusively on the title of the articles. Hence, the title should be as short, concise and informative as possible. It should not contain non-standard acronyms or abbreviations and should not exceed 80 characters including spaces. Avoid titles beginning with "Analysis of...", "A Note on...", "Theory of...", "On the...", "Some...", "Toward a...", "Investigation on...", "A study on...", etc. Such openings are not helpful for the reader and are useless for information-retrieval purposes. Limit the title to words that highlight the significant content of the article both for understanding and retrieving purposes.
･Authors' Name and Affiliation
Under the title of submission, type job title, full name and the affiliation of each author . Under the name of the corresponding author, type the e-mail adress, the author's current affiliation and complete address. Former affiliation is permissible only if the author has changed affiliation after the submission of the work. Changes in number, name and order of the authors are not possible after submission.
･Abstract
The abstract used in primary Journals is often referred to as informative type (rather than the indicative type) and are designed to condense the article. It should not be viewed as a part of the text and should be complete in itself. It may be better understood as a brief description of all sections of the article. Hence, the abstract should (1) state the principal objectives and scope of the investigation or project, (2) describe the general methodology employed, (3) summarize the results, (4) and state the principal conclusions.
Abstracts are often used for information retrieval and therefore have major role in promoting articles. They should be succinctly and clearly written within a maximum of 200 words. As it should stand alone, it must not contain abbreviations and mathematical expressions nor any specialised terms that may not be understandable in itself. References to other literature should be avoided, but if essential, then they should be cited in full and not included in the reference list at the end.
･References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the Abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
Citations in the text:
All statements, opinions, conclusions, etc. taken from another writer's work should be cited, whether the work is directly quoted, paraphrased or summarised. Do not abbreviate titles of publications and for Journals cite the full name or the library abbreviation of the name. Cited publications are referred to in the text by giving the author's surname and the year of publication in one of the forms shown below. If details of particular parts of a document are required, e.g. page numbers, they should be given after the year within the parentheses.
+If the author's name occurs naturally in the sentence the year is given in parentheses:
e.g. In a popular study Hillerborg (1988, p.172) argued that ...
+If, however, the name does not occur naturally in the sentence, both name and year are given in parentheses:
e.g. More recent studies (Schorn 1991, 1993; Schlangen 1993) show that ...
+When an author has published more than one cited document in the same year, these are distinguished by adding lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the year and within the parentheses:
e.g. Slowik (1990b) discussed the subject ...
+If there are two authors, the surnames of both should be given:
e.g. Tazawa and Miyazawa (1993) have proposed that...
+If there are more than two authors the surname of the first author only should be given, followed by et al.:
e.g.Bazant et al. (2000) conclude that...
+If the author is anonymous then "Anon" should be used:
e.g.A recent article (Anon 1993) stated that...
However, if it is a reference to newspapers or magazines where no author is given, the name of the paper can be used in place of author or Anon whichever seems most helpful.You will need to use the same style in the reference list so the name of the newspaper may be more helpful.
e.g.The Japan Concrete Institute (1996) stated that....
+If you refer to a source quoted in another work you cite both in the text:
e.g.A study by Neville (1960 cited Nakamura et al. 2000, p.233) showed...
(You need to place the work you have used, i.e. Jones, in the reference list.)
+Short quotations, of less than a line, you may be included in the body of the text inquotation marks but if it is longer start a new line and indent it. Include the pagenumber if desired.
e.g.....so "good practices must be taught" (Kim 1996, p.15) and we should...
or:Theory rises out of practice, and once validated, returns to direct or explain the practice (Stevens 1997, pp.92-93).
+Citing a Web site within the text of an assignment, give the address of the site (e.g. http://www.j-act.org). To cite a document from a Web site you must follow the author-date format. In both cases an entry will still be required in the reference list.

Reference list:
A list of references contains details only of those works cited in the text. The reference list is arranged in alphabetical order of the first author on a separate page. Where an item has no author it is cited by its title, and ordered in the reference list in sequence by the first significant word of the title. The use of the expression et al. (= et alia) to indicate multiple authorship is permissible in the text, but not in the list of references, where all names should be given.
Each entry in the reference list should use the elements and punctuation given in the following examples for the different types of published work you may have cited:

+Reference to a book
Author's Surname, INITIALS., (Year of publication). "Title." Edition. (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g. Metha, P.K. and Monteiro, P.G.M., (1993). "Concrete: structure, properties, and methods." 2nd ed.New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
+Reference to a contribution in a book
Contributing author's Surname, INITIALS., (Year of publication). "Title of contribution." Followed by In: INITIALS. Surname, of author or editor of publication followed by Ed. or Eds (if applicable). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher, Page number(s) of contribution.
e.g. Topping, B.H.V., (1999). "Neural Networks in Advanced Computational Problems." In: Z. Waszczyszyn Ed. Neural Networks in the Analysis and Design of Structures. Wien: Springer-Verlag, 197-248.
+Reference to an article in a journal
Author's Surname, INITIALS., (Year of publication). "Title of article." Title of journal, Volume number and (part number), Page numbers of contribution.
e.g. Zaitsev, Y. B. and Wittmann, F.H., (1984). "Simulation of crack propagation and failure of concrete." Materials and Structures, 14 (83), 357-365.
+Reference to a conference paper
Contributing author's Surname, INITIALS.,(Year of publication). "Title of contribution." Followed by In: INITIALS. Surname, of editor of conference proceedings (if applicable) followed by Ed. or Eds. Title of conference proceedings including date and place of conference. Place of publication: Publisher, Page numbers of contribution.
e.g. Springenschmid, R., (2002). "Experimental research on surface cracking of concrete." In: H. Mihashi and F.H. Wittmann, Eds. International conference on control cracking of early age concrete, Sendai 23-24 August 2000. Lisse: A.A. Balkema Publishers, 1-8.
+Reference to a publication from a corporate body
Name of Issuing Body, (Year of publication). "Title of publication." Place of publication: Publisher, Report Number (where relevant).
e.g. JSCE, (1985). "Standard specification for design and construction of concrete structures." Tokyo: Japan Society of Civil Engineers,
or RILEM, (1998). "Prevention of thermal cracking in concrete at early ages." R. Springenschmid, Ed. London: FN Spon. RILEM report 15.
+Reference to a thesis
Author's Surname, INITIALS., (Year of publication). "Title of thesis." Designation, (and type). Name of institution to which submitted.
e.g. Walraven, J.C., (1980). "Aggregate Interlock: a theoretical and experimental analysis." Thesis (PhD). Delft University of Technology.
+Reference to a patent
Originator, (Date of publication). "Title of patent." Series designation.
e.g. Philip Morris Inc., (1981). "Optical perforating apparatus and system." European patent application 0021165 A1.
+Reference to a non-alphabetical article
Translate the bibliographical data into English and attach the name of the original language in parenthesis to the end of the data.
e.g. Takahashi, Y. and Suzuki, I., (1984). "Simulation of crack propagation and failure of concrete." Concrete Research and Technology, 2 (1), 67-75. (in Japanese)

Citing electronic sources:
Citation in the text must follow the author-date procedure as outlined above.
References End of a Work:
+Reference to individual works
Author/editor, (Year). "Title [online]." (Edition). Place of publication, Publisher if ascertainable). Available from: <URL> [Accessed Date].
e.g. Holland, M., (1996)."Harvard system[online]." Poole, Bournemouth University. Available from:
<http://www.windsor.igs.net/~nhodgins> [Accessed 18 Feb 1999].
or Library Services, (1995). "Internet user glossary [online]." North Carolina, North Carolina State University. Available from:
<gopher://dewey.lib.ncsu.edu:70/7waissrc%3A/> [Accessed 18 Feb 1999].
+Reference to article in E-Journals
Authorﾕs Surname, INITIALS., (Year). "Title." Journal Title [online], volume (issue), location within host. Available from: <URL> [Accessed Date].
e.g. Tazawa, E.-I., (1998). "Effect of Self Stress on Flexural Strength of Gypsum-Polymer Composites." Advanced Cement Based Materials [online], 7 (1). Available from:
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/web-editions> [Accessed 20 Feb 2002].
+Reference to article in conference
Authorﾕs Surname, INITIALS., (Year of publication). "Title of contribution." Followed by In: INITIALS. Surname, of editor of conference proceedings (if applicable) followed by Ed. or Eds. Title of conference proceedings including date and place of conference location within host. Available from: <URL> [Accessed Date].
e.g. Slowik, V., Leite, J.P.B. and Zaitsev, Y.V., (2000). "Mesolevel Modelling of Concrete Fracture by using Particle and Truss Models." In Werkstoffwoche-Partnerschaft Ed. Materials Week 2000 - Proceedings [online], conference on advanced materials, their processing & applications, Munich, Germany, Sept. 25-28, 2000. Available from:
< http://www.materialsweek.org/proceedings> [Accessed 10 May 2001].
+Reference to electronic media (BPO):[3]
Author/editorﾕs Surname, INITIALS., (Year). "Title [type of medium]. (Edition)." Place of publication, Publisher (if ascertainable). Available from: Supplier/Database identifier or number (optional).
e.g. Bogaerts, W.F.L., (1998). "Active library on corrosion 2.0: an interactive adventure [CD-ROM]." Elsevier Science.


Recommended Structure of the Article
･Introduction
The purposes of this section are: (1) present sufficient background information for the understanding and evaluation of the results of the reported study, as well as their relationship to earlier work in the field; and (2) provide the purpose and validation for the present study. It should not, in general, exceed two typed pages.
Unanimous rules for a good Introduction are: (1) present the problem investigated or project reported, in terms of nature and scope; (2) review of the pertinent literature, but only at the required extent to orient the reader; and (3) state the chosen methods and perhaps the reasons for the choice, but not describing them.
As for promoting technical and scientific matter, an extra rule is also convenient to capture the attention of the reader: (4) advance in condensed and highlighted manner the principal result or conclusion suggested by the results, which will be substantiated in later sections. The reason behind the latter rule is that otherwise a reader initially planning to study the entire article might naturally neglect the abstract and loose motivation to read the article to the end.
･Methods and Materials
The purpose of this section is to provide sufficient information on methodology and materials employed, so that competent professionals can reproduce the experiments, numerical simulations or projects reported. For scientific and technical merit, the possibility of reproduction of same or similar results must exist. In case of serious doubt about the viability for reproducing the work, reviewers are encouraged to reject the manuscript.
Provide the exact technical specifications and quantities of materials, as well as source or method of preparation. Statements and references should be accurate but free of speculative or advertising material. The text should not refer to the names of individuals, organizations, products or services unless it is essential to understanding and in neither complementary nor derogatory.
The Methods and Materials section usually has subheadings, which usually depend on the nature of the reported work (e.g. experimental and/or analytical). Examples of usual elements of a Methods and Materials section are: (a) the procedures for preparing materials, for setting or operating equipment, and for performing measurements, (b) the detailed description of equipments, specimens and constitutive materials, in terms of dimensions, quantities, sources and conditions, (c) the analytical modelling and assumptions; (d) the aspects of mathematical simulations and analyses; (e) evaluation approaches and criteria.
Only methods or their variations, which are truly new or have not been accurately presented in the literature, should be described. Others should be only cited with appropriate references.
･Results and Discussion
The Results and Discussion may eventually be separated into two independent sections when the article presents a large volume of raw data in text, tabular or graphical form. Though in this case further care is required to avoid redundancies in the sections.The Results section would present the factual data to substantiate the discussion and conclusions in subsequent sections. Results are presented in figures and tables and some results not requiring documentation are given solely in the text. Do not repeat tabular and graphical data in text and if you adopt separate sections, leave the discussion for the subsequent section. Preferably, use absolute numbers and allow the reader evaluate the results. Only use statistics and relative numbers if they are meaningful and the more logical way of presenting the results.
The discussion should be concise and focused on the interpretation of the results rather than a repetition of the Results section. In the Discussion section, (1) Derive principles, relationships and generalisations based on the presented results, (2) point out exceptions, lack of correlations and any unsettled points and provide known or hypothetical reasons for them, (3) demonstrate how your results and interpretations agree or contrast with the previous work, (4) provide the evidence for each conclusion, and (5) discuss the potential applications of your work.
The subheadings of the results should preferably match those of the methods.
･Conclusion
In the Conclusion section, summarise the conclusions based on evidence provided in the article and highlight the significance of the results and/or project. Avoid cite previous work in the Conclusion section. Indicate the potential applicability of proposed methods, with assessments if possible.In research related articles, authors may recommend further directions of the research, as suggested by the results presented in the article.


COPYRIGHT, REPRODUCTION AND PERMISSIONS

Transfer of Copyright
Before ACT can publish any article the copyright must be transferred to the Japan Concrete Institute. Transfer of copyright helps JCI to make articles more widely accessible across different media, whether supplementing or replacing printed versions, and hence ensures that the research gains global promotion. This transfer agreement enables JCI to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but does not relinquish the author's proprietary rights.
Copyright of articles is assigned to JCI from the date on which the article is submitted for publication, and therefore a simultaneous submission of the article (or similar material) for publication elsewhere is a breach of Copyright.
Authors are asked to submit a completed Copyright Transfer Agreement in hardcopy. This CTA appears on the ACT's Web site and must be completed, signed and sent with the final manuscript. If the author cannot assign copyright then an agreement giving Licence to Publish will be required instead. Please consult our Editorial secretary if the standard form is not appropriate for your circumstances.
Authors who may not own the copyright (e.g. authors in industrial companies or government research establishments) are asked to state this explicitly.
In the case of multi-author papers, only one author needs to sign the form but the written consent of all the other authors should be obtained beforehand and sent accompanying the Copyright Transfer Agreement.
The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations. This includes the right to adapt the article for use in conjunction with computer systems and programs, including reproduction or publication in machine-readable form and incorporation in retrieval systems.

Copying ACT Articles
The author retains, to the extent provided by law, the right to the fair use of the manuscript for various purposes such as teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use) and other non-profit educational purposes. Reproduction of journals or parts of journals, whether is in paper or in electronic media, requires the permission from JCI. Permission for reproduction of illustrations, tables and short extracts from the text of individual articles published in ACT is usually granted upon request to the editorial secretary, provided that the original source of the material is acknowledged in each case and the permission of the authors is also obtained.

Reproducing Published Material
Authors who wish to publish figures or charts previously in print must obtain written permission from the respective authors and publishers. Permission from the publisher is required regardless of the published material being from the same authors. For most publishers the granting of copyright permission is usually routine. ACT cannot publish a manuscript without such written permissions, which must be enclosed in the submission package.



AFTER SUBMISSION


Refereeing Process
A contribution submitted for consideration for publication is a confidential matter until its final release for publication. The aim of the evaluation system is to maintain the quality of material to be published and to reduce the time lag between receipt and publication of acceptable papers. When papers fail to meet certain minimum standards, they are promptly rejected. Reasons for such rejection may be:
+Evident lack of significance
+Material little different from some previous publication
+Hopelessly poor organisation and composition
+Subject matter out of the scope of ACT
+Subject apparently of interest to too few readers
Every contribution submitted for publication is given preliminary review by a staff committee. Manuscripts of regular articles, which successfully undergoes preliminary review, will be further reviewed by at least two experts, in the area of concentration of the manuscript, selected by the editor from a pool of approved referees. Referees are asked to take into account the content, quality and presentation of the article when reaching their recommendations.
On completion of review of a manuscript, the author will be advised promptly whether it has been accepted or rejected and recommended to revise the manuscript in the light of the referees' comments. If referees give conflicting advice, a senior referee will be consulted for the settlement of the matter in dispute. If the referees recommend rejection of an article, the authors may appeal to the Editorial Board for further consideration, stating in writing the substantial reasons for their appeal. The manuscript may be then sent to a new group of reviewers on the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Manuscripts with two positive reviews are accepted after the appropriate corrections. However, a manuscript after final submission may still be declined if the author did not revise the manuscript as required by the reviewers, if new material was introduced that is considered to be of unacceptable quality, or if additional errors are found.
When the review shows that the article could be improved by condensation, the author will be asked to do so. Means of condensation and conservation of space might be through omission of tables in favour of graphs showing the same thing, putting parts of the paper in appendixes, which can be set in smaller type and condensation of relatively unimportant discussion. Certain editorial prerogatives are reserved to the editor, e.g., format, punctuation, abbreviation, and minor revision for greater clarity.
Electronic refereeing facility has been implemented and referees are strongly encouraged to report via the web or by E-mail to speed up the review process. Articles submitted electronically will be converted into a PDF file, unless this has been supplied, and provided to the referees with instructions to enable them to use our facilities for refereeing.
The authors of a manuscript rejected due to obvious misconstructions of reviewers can, if necessary, request for reinvestigation to ACT.

Revising the Article
Submitting a revised or amended version of your article in response to the referee's comments, authors are advised to compare the original version with the revised one and list any changes you have made (ignoring typographical errors, but mentioning additional paragraphs, changes to figures, etc).
Alternatively, authors may also send in a second copy of your article with the changes marked or underlined. The changes made in response to the referees' remarks should have a distinct marking. If this is detailed enough, it can eliminate the need to provide a separate "list of changes".
Authors should go through the referees' comments and for each comment mention whether the suggestion was followed or the author disagree and wish to respond to the comment.

Proofreading the Article
Proofs of articles are usually sent to the corresponding authors by E-mail as an annotated PDF file attachment for correction.
Authors should check your proofs carefully and return corrections by E-mail, if possible. In such a case, the corrections should be send as a list with each correction given a precise location in terms of, for example, page and line number. Please do not amend the PDF file or send an amended manuscript at this stage. If not possible to send the corrections by E-mail, authors can also send corrections by fax, first-class post or airmail. In this case the corrections should be marked clearly in the text.
The ultimate responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of the published paper rests with authors. If proofs reach authors during an absence of which ACT has not been informed, or if the proofs are not returned within requested time, ACT may publish the paper without author's corrections.
When proofreading the manuscripts authors should take particular care checking mathematics, tables and references. Only essential corrections should be made. Authors may be charged for excessive corrections arising from their own errors or omissions.

Author Enquiries
Authors can examine the progress of their submitted articles by using the Tracking System feature of ACT's Web site.
Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.


AFTER PUBLICATION
Errata
If errors appear in the published PDF file that are serious enough to impair understanding or mislead readers, the author should prepare a correction, which will be published in our electronic repository J-Stage. Minor errors may only be considered as attachments of electronic reprints. Errata are also published with closures.

Closures
When discussions are received and approved for publication, the authors of the original paper are asked to prepare a closure, i.e., a response that provides clarification of and conclusions to the points raised in the discussions. Closures are published together with the discussions.