Submissions to "Chaos and Graphics" Section

The following are some helpful hints regarding submitting papers to the "Chaos and Graphics" Section of the internationl journal Computers and Graphics. Cliff Pickover is the editor for this journal section.

You are cordially invited to submit interesting, well-written articles for the "Chaos and Graphics Section" of the international scientific journal Computers and Graphics (Elsevier). I edit this section, which appears in each issue of the journal. Topics include the mathematical, scientific, and artistic application of fractals, chaos, and related. Your papers can be quite short if desired, for example, often a page or two is sufficient to convey an idea and a pretty graphic. (The journal is peer-reviewed, which means that several reviewers will judge whether the paper is suitably written, attractive, relevant, or novel. The English must be excellent.) I publish color, where appropriate.

The goal of my section is to provide visual demonstrations of complicated and beautiful structures which can arise in systems based on simple rules. The section presents papers on the seemingly paradoxical combinations of randomness and structure in systems of mathematical, physical, biological, electrical, chemical, and artistic interest. Topics include: iteration, cellular automata, bifurcation maps, fractals, dynamical systems, patterns of nature created from simple rules, and aesthetic graphics drawn from the universe of mathematics and art.

The web page for this journal is here.

Book

In 1998, I gathered together many papers from the last 10 years of this section into a big, fat, color book "Chaos and Fractals: A Computer-Graphical Journey." More information on this compilation is here. By looking at the chapter titles, you can get an idea of the kinds of topics suitable for this journal section.

Art or Science

For the section I edit -- papers with novel images, art, ideas, applications, recipes, science, or mathematics are best. If your novelty level is low, your paper may be useful as a tutorial, and you might use the word "tutorial" in your title and abstract. Tutorials should explain clearly how to produce the images. If your mathematical level is low, your paper still might be useful as an artistic piece, and you may want to use the word "art" in your title and abstract so that technical readers will not expect a mathematical treatise. If your mathematical content is very high, please ease the reader into the topic with a general opening paragraph.
Your paper should not simply consist of telling people that you used a program like Fracint or Ultra Fractal, selected a standard option, and got a result, without giving details. For example, if art is your goal, you could potentially publish a beautiful Ultra Fractal fractal by explaining how you got your results giving mathematical formulas and computational hints for people unfamiliar with the program, so they would have a chance of experimenting with your basic ideas. Your level of "beauty" and "novelty" should be high for a paper with art as its only goal. Your writing style should be clear and for an audience mostly of technical readers.

Format

1. Title, author's name, complete company or university address, e-mail address.

2. Abstract - a few sentence description summarizing your work and (if possible) how it differs from other work in the field.

3. Text - a few-sentence introduction to what you are doing and an introduction to the general field. Article introductory paragraphs should mention the purpose of the article. How does your work differ from others? (Perhaps you have some new equations, new ways of coloring, new ways of testing and displaying complicated behavior, or new focus on a particularly interesting and pretty parameter set)... Make sure you include the equations used to generate the figures in the text of your article. If your graphics give interesting insights, let the reader know.

Note: we are beginning to be saturated with the same "old" Mandelbrot and Julia set pictures. If you wish to contribute on this topic, make sure there is some novelty in your pictures and approach.

Describe and refer to each of your figures. Give parameters. Can readers reproduce your results given the information you provide?

4. Pseudocode (a short computational recipe to encourage reader involvement). This is optional, but always a nice addition to any paper.

5. References - add a few references in the field. Refer to these references in your text. Use square brackets around reference numbers in the text. List references at the end of the paper in numerical order.

Reference format:

Journals
1. Smith, L. B., A survey of graphics. Computing Surveys, 1970, 2, 261-301.

(Journal titles should be given out in full, not abbreviated.)
Books
2. Newman, W. and Sproull, R., Principles of Graphics, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1973.

(Italicize or underline book titles and journal names.)
6. Figure Legends - on a separate page write a short "legend" or title for each figure.

Place you figures on separate pages at the end of your article. Do not embed figures into the text of the article.

Note: your paper will be reviewed (refereed) by others in the field, before it goes to publication. We can publish color figures.

Send me three copies of your article. The paper should be double-spaced. Use one side of the page. Eventually you will be asked to provide your paper on a diskette, but don't worry about that until the paper is accepted. Do not send a diskette now.

Please suggest 2 reviewers (names, address, and e-mail) who you think would be willing and able to rapidly review your paper.

Send papers here:

Dr. Clifford A. Pickover
IBM Watson Research Center
Route 134
Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 USA
www.pickover.com

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