Final preparation of your paper for publication

After your paper has been tentatively accepted, we will need the final version formatted according to the guidelines on this page. These achieve a minimal amount of consistency between papers while leaving most formatting issues to authors.

When you have formatted the paper, send all the source files to the editor who is handling your paper. We need to compile the paper ourselves, so don't forget to include all figures, bibliography files, and also any private style files or other such source files that we might need. There is no need to send files that are available in most TeX installations, such as standard Latex packages.

Also send the publication release form, as below.

Formatting requirements

We only impose a small number of restrictions on the format of the paper.

  1. The font size is 12pt, the text width is 160mm (6.3in), the text height is 221mm (8.7in), and the top and left margins are both 25mm (1in).
  2. There is a standard footer line.
  3. Dates and subject classifications are present in a standard form.
  4. Addresses (including email addresses) of all authors appear at the start of the paper.
  5. There is an abstract.
  6. External figures must be included using a standard method, such as the Latex package "graphics" or the plain TeX package "epsf". In particular, avoid raw \special commands entirely. You are welcome to use color, but please check that the paper is still comprehensible when printed on a b/w printer.
  7. All overfull boxes must be fixed. That is, there must be no text protruding into the margins.

Formatting in Latex.

  1. Copy the file e-jc.sty to your computer and edit the heading of your Latex file to be like this: 
       \documentclass[12pt]{article}
   \usepackage{e-jc}
    This package only sets the page dimensions and defines the footline. It does not interfere with other formatting so you can continue using standard packages like "amsmath".
  2. Remove all previous commands that change the text size, margins or footer line.
  3. Remove all calls to packages that you don't actually need to produce the final version of your paper.
  4. The Latex \date command should appear before the \begin{document} command, as follows: 
       \date{\dateline{Jan 4, 2007}{Feb 10, 2007}\\
   \small Mathematics Subject Classification: 05C88}

    The two dates are the submission and acceptance dates; if you don't know exact dates just fill in the years and we will add the rest. The subject classification numbers should be according to the AMS 2010 scheme.

  5. Make sure that when using our style file latex runs on your paper without any errors or warnings. If you have "overfull boxes" change wording slightly, or reformat equations so that they fit within the normal width.

Note that we no longer accept papers written in Latex 2.09 (characterized by starting with \documentstyle rather than \documentclass), nor the Latex style "amsart" (use "amsmath" instead).

An example of a paper formatted according to these rules is here.

Formatting in plain TeX.

Please follow this example.

Formatting in AMSTex.

This is no longer accepted. We recommend you change to Latex with the "amsmath" package.

The Abstract

The paper should contain an abstract of principal results obtained, on the first page. When your paper is published, we will send out a notice of its publication to our subscribers. Your abstract, reproduced verbatim, will be the main content of that notice, so please take care in making the abstract informative, complete, clear, and as self-contained as possible, in order to interest subscribers in reading your paper. An abstract is primarily a listing of the new results that are obtained in the paper. Phrases like "we investigate .." or "we study ..." should be kept to a minimum in favor of "we prove that ..." or "we show that ...". An ideal abstract consists of a succinct statement of background followed by a listing of the principal new results that are to be found in the paper.  Do not include equation numbers, unexpanded citations (such as "[23]"), or any other references to things in the paper that are not defined in the abstract. Remember that the abstract will be distributed without the rest of the paper so it must be entirely self-contained.

Publication Release form

Unlike most journals, the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics leaves the copyright of papers with the authors. We only require your agreement that we publish it.

First read the full text of our publication release agreement:


 1. This is an agreement between the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics (the "Journal"), and the copyright owner (the "Owner") of a work (the "Work") to be published in the Journal.
 2. The Owner warrants that s/he has the full power and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights granted in this Agreement.
 3. The Owner hereby grants to the Journal a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty free license to publish or distribute the Work, to enter into arrangements with others to publish or distribute the Work, and to archive the Work.
 4. The Owner agrees that further publication of the Work, with the same or substantially the same content as appears in the Journal, will include an acknowledgement of prior publication in the Journal.
Next, copy the text of the agreement above into an e-mail message to eljc (AT) math (dot) upenn (dot) edu. Then add the title of your paper and the names of all authors, plus the statement "I (We) accept the terms of this agreement". Type "Publication Release" in the subject line and send the message.