Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission of papers

Please submit papers via the journal's web interface. All papers are double-blind peer-reviewed, so please follow the submission instructions below:

1. To prepare papers, use the Microsoft Word paper template or the LaTeX paper template.
2. Submit your paper via the journal's web interface. Enter all required information into the online form, including the names of the authors and their institutions (the content entered will appear on the journal's website if the article is accepted). Be careful not to include authors and institutions in the header of the paper, or short descriptions of the authors at the bottom of the paper, otherwise the reviewers will see your information! When submitting a paper, you must also submit copyright statements from all authors. After the paper has been submitted, it is no longer possible to change the authors or their order!
3. After receiving the reviewers' comments, in case of corrections, submit an updated paper. In addition to the paper, prepare a document with responses to the reviewers' comments. Professional papers are usually reviewed by one reviewer, while scientific papers are reviewed by at least two reviewers.
4. When the technical editor asks you to submit the final paper, review the paper again, include a list of authors in the paper header and short descriptions at the bottom of the paper.
5. When a new issue of the journal is published, all members of the Slovenian Society of INFORMATIKA are notified, and subscribers to physical copies and all authors of papers in the issue (free of charge) receive a physical copy of the journal at their address.

For all questions regarding submission, design, ..., please contact the technical editor of the journal (timotej.knez@fri.uni-lj.si)

Content guidelines

Articles are usually published in Slovenian, and articles by foreign authors in English. The text should be carefully prepared. We recommend moderation in the use of foreign words and - where possible - replacing them with Slovenian terms. To help you find Slovenian equivalents, we recommend using the online terminology dictionary of the Slovenian Society of Informatics Islovar (www.islovar.org). The journal publishes contributions of the following types:

a) Scientific paper - A paper that represents the first publication of original research results in a form that allows the research to be repeated and the findings to be verified. It is usually organized according to the IMRAD scheme (Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion) for experimental research or in a descriptive manner for descriptive scientific fields. Expected length: approximately 40,000 characters.

b) Short scientific paper - A paper in which individual parts of the IMRAD scheme may be omitted. It briefly summarizes the results of completed original research work or work that is still in progress. This also includes short reviews (mini reviews) and previous publications, if they have the character of a short scientific paper. Expected length: approximately 10,000 characters.

c) Professional paper - A paper with an emphasis on the applicability of original research results and the dissemination of knowledge. Expected length: approximately 30,000 characters.

d) Announcement or report - Expected length: up to 8,000 characters.

The article should generally be submitted in PDF format (*.PDF and *.zip with translatable LaTeX code) or MS Word (*.doc or *.docx) in single-spaced format, without special characters or accented letters. Leave only one blank space after the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence, and do not use indentation in paragraphs. It is recommended to use the MS Word or LaTeX template above for preparing the article.

The title of the article should be followed by the full name, institution where the author is employed, address and email address for each author. This should be followed by a summary in Slovenian of 8 to 10 lines and a list of 5 to 8 keywords that best define the content framework of the article. The English abstract should be preceded by an English translation of the title, and the keywords in English should be added. The opposite applies if the article is submitted in English.

Sections should be titled and numbered with Arabic numerals.

Include figures and tables in the text. Give them a title and number them with Arabic numerals. Explain each figure and table in the text of the article. If you use figures or tables by other authors in the article, cite the source under the figure or table. The journal is printed in black and white, so color figures or photographs will only be available in the electronic version of the journal. When using color figures, pay particular attention to the comprehensibility and transparency of the printed version of the journal. We do not publish screenshots unless they are absolutely necessary for understanding the text. Figures, graphs, organizational charts, etc. should have a white background. Number equations in brackets to the right of the equation.

In the text, refer to the cited literature in accordance with the rules of the IEEE bibliographic reference system, which in the text means the serial number of the cited source in square brackets (e.g. [1]). At the end of the article, only list the literature and sources used in the article in a single list in alphabetical order of authors, also in accordance with IEEE rules. For information about the IEEE system, which is also supported by the Word 2007 text editor, see https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/ieee_style/ieee_general_format.html.

Add a short biography of each author to the article, up to 8 lines long, highlighting their professional achievements.

Research Data Management

The Journal of Applied Informatics encourages the management of research data in accordance with the Open Science Guidelines (ARIS) and the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. Authors of scientific articles whose research is at least 50% funded by public sources must follow the guidelines for the management, sharing, and citation of research data.

Research data includes all data that was created, collected, or processed as part of a research study and is necessary to verify the results presented in a scientific article. This includes, for example, experimental results, simulation data, source code and scripts used to process or analyze data, images, videos, audio recordings, survey results, databases, metadata, and other related content.

Research data must generally be published in open access (under the CC BY or CC BY-SA license) in a trusted, publicly accessible repository that is included in the list of the Public Agency for Research and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia, the co-financier of the journal Uporabnja informatika. Repositories must provide permanent identifiers (e.g. DOI or HANDLE) and long-term storage and accessibility of data.

Such repositories are, for example, institutional (RUL, DKUM, RUNG, DiRROS), subject (ADP, CLARIN) or general repositories (Zenodo, etc.).

If open access publication of data is not possible, authors must clearly state the reasons for restricted access (e.g. confidentiality of data, legal restrictions, protection of personal data or intellectual property restrictions).

Each manuscript must include a data accessibility statement that clearly states where the data is accessible (repository name and permanent identifier), under what conditions it is available, or why it is not publicly available.

Research data used or generated in the study must be appropriately cited in the bibliography, just like other scientific sources.

Some more tips for authors

The following tips are intended to help authors prepare the highest quality contributions. They are recommendations and guidelines that authors should use sensibly when preparing their contributions. The elements presented below are content sets and not necessarily chapters.

Article quality

The following usually contribute to the quality of an article: the topicality of the topic, the method of presentation, the structure and organization of the article, the comprehensibility of the text, and for scientific articles, also methodological suitability.

Article title

The title raises the reader's expectations about the content of the article, so choose it carefully. The title should be short and concise and should appropriately characterize the content that you discuss in the article.

Abstract
The abstract should describe the content of the article and (in the case of scientific articles) the results of the research in 8 to 10 lines and should be prepared with particular care, since, apart from the title, this is the most readable part of the article. Readers usually decide whether to read the article based on the abstract.

It is not enough for the abstract to simply list the content of the article, but rather to summarize the essence of the article. It should present the problem, purpose, objectives, method of solution, and essential findings and conclusions. It should be short and concise, and no words should be superfluous. Introductory words such as "the author discusses..." or "the article shows..." are unnecessary; it is better to start with the content immediately. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, write in the third person. Do not refer to the text of the article or cite literature. Note that the abstract can be published independently. The abstract should not be too long (no longer than 150 words).

Introduction

The introduction describes the main problem, purpose, and objectives of the article. The introduction should not be a rewritten summary of the article. At the end of the introduction, indicate how you will address the presented problem in the following.

The main part of the text

Structure the text content-wise according to the type of article, breaking it down into sections of appropriate length and content-wise completion. Sections should not be extremely short (e.g. one paragraph) or excessively long (e.g. the entire text except for the introduction and conclusion in a single section). When dividing into sections, generally do not use more than two levels. For section titles, use the instructions for the article title as appropriate.

Do not include content in the article that does not contribute to the answer to the selected issue, even if you find it interesting. Do not describe software solutions in detail (e.g. menus). Avoid excessive enumeration (e.g. entire pages of paragraphs).

Pay special attention to the use of relevant literature, to supporting claims and findings with references to literature or with your own findings. Judge the appropriateness of the references you have used, especially from literature and sources of technology or solution providers (e.g. sales descriptions).

The use of images and tables can significantly contribute to the conciseness, comprehensibility and interest of the article. The structure of tables and graphs should be simple and transparent. As a rule, it is more advisable to present data with images (graphs) than in tables. When preparing images, keep in mind that the printout will be black and white, so do not refer to the colors in the image in the text or image descriptions. Images and tables must complement the text, so refer to them in the text and describe them.

For data, claims and findings that are not a direct result of your work, cite the sources that you list in the list of used literature and sources at the end of the article. This will adequately support the claims and findings, do not appropriate the achievements of others, and at the same time direct the reader who is interested in more to additional literature. Please note the copyright of published works (e.g. in the case of images).

Contribute to the promotion of professional terms in the Slovenian language. If you refer to several sources in the article that use different terminology, unify the terms in the article (do not use different terms for the same concept).

Conclusion

State the main findings, advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solutions or findings, limitations, open problems and suggestions for further work. The conclusion should not be a summary of the article.

References

Carefully select the literature you will use. In the list, only list the literature used in the article and to which you refer.

Types of articles

Applied Informatics publishes scientific articles (original scientific article, review scientific article or published scientific paper at a conference according to the COBISS typology) and professional articles (professional article, from practice to practice, interview, review, announcement, report).

Scientific articles

The usual requirements apply to scientific articles, which are mainly:

• The research findings must be presented in such a form that the research can be repeated, and the findings must be verified or the article must contain new syntheses that also include the results of the author's own research.
• The article must be organized as a scientific article. As a rule, this means that it must contain all the standard components of such articles (introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion).
• It must contain an overview of the current state of research, i.e. a review of the (scientific) literature in the field addressed by the article and a more comprehensive presentation of the basic concepts of the field covered by the article.

In all this, it must be taken into account that the journal Uporabnja informatika is intended for the widest professional audience, so the articles should be written in a comprehensible manner and in such a way that they will be interesting to the broad professional audience. Therefore, the research issues and findings should be clearly presented in a way that enables understanding of the essential findings and the possibilities of using research achievements in (business) practice (managerial application). This must be specifically and unambiguously highlighted in the concluding section and in the summary.

Professional articles

The purpose of professional articles is to present an achievement or topic that represents a new quality for experts working in practice in the field of informatics and information technologies. The achievements and topics presented by professional articles can be very different:

• Projects: It can be a successfully implemented project and a presentation of its results and positive effects. It is certainly not pleasant and easy to admit that a certain project was partially successful or unsuccessful. In such cases, a professional article can present an analysis of the project, the purpose of which is to determine the reasons for its partial success or failure. In general, it can be various projects: development projects, projects for introducing various systems, etc.
• Methods and techniques: A professional article can present a method or technique, the use of which in a certain field represents an advantage and enables better results.
• Case study: A professional article can present a case study in any field and, based on the case, an analysis in a direction that makes sense for the given case. It can be, for example, an analysis of the advantages and/or disadvantages of the case.
• Use of standards and introduction of frameworks: Professional articles can present new standards or frameworks and examples of their use and introduction.
• New technologies: The presentation of new technologies is certainly a suitable topic for professional articles, while commercial emphasis should be avoided.
• Other: The previously presented achievements and topics represent many possibilities for professional articles, but certainly not all. Therefore, authors are invited to present other types of achievements in professional articles.

In any case, a professional article must have a clear practical component that will provide new value to IT experts or IT users.

The purpose of professional articles is different from the purpose of research articles, so professional articles generally have a different structure and content sections than research articles.

The recommended structure of a professional article has the following content sections:

• Introductory part: In the introductory part, the author presents the purpose of the article.
• Brief presentation of the field: In this section, the author briefly presents the field of the article. For example, if it is an article that presents the introduction of a CRM product, the author should briefly present the field of CRM and the field of introducing CRM products. A more extensive presentation of the field is not necessary.
• Presentation of the problem or core of the article: This section presents the key part of the article, the core of the article, which reflects the goal of writing the article. For example, if it is an article that presents the introduction of a CRM product, the author presents some or most of the following content: the business activity in which the CRM product is introduced, the specifics of such an activity, the requirements for the introduction, the expected effects, the expected problems, the approach and methodology used. The author can briefly present similar examples of introduction (sources for this can be articles in professional journals, professional books, articles on the Internet, etc.). This increases the value of the article, but it is not mandatory.
• Presentation of the case: Based on the previous section, the author presents (his) case. For example, if it is For an article that presents the introduction of a CRM product, the author should briefly present the introduction of the selected product. In this case, the article should not be commercially oriented and should not present the product in its entirety. The article can use the example of this product to present the introduction in a way that does not present the product in a commercial sense, but rather actually presents its introduction and the problems that arose.
• Conclusion: Based on the presented topic, the author presents conclusions, summarizes the results or effects, and provides suggestions and guidance that will be helpful to those who will encounter the same or similar professional challenges.

Ethical principles

Applied Informatics publishes only original articles and does not allow plagiarism. When using the works of other authors, the source must be properly cited, while strictly respecting copyright. Multiple publication of one's own research findings is permitted to a limited extent, especially in cases where the contribution was previously presented at a conference, then expanded and, taking into account the suggestions from the conference, prepared for publication in Applied Informatics. In the event that it is an expansion of an already published contribution, it is absolutely necessary to submit the previously published contribution and write a note to the editors about this when submitting.

The editorial board reserves the right to check the similarity of texts with programs intended for this purpose.

When submitting an article, the author must sign a statement of authorship, confirming the originality of the article and allowing the transfer of material copyrights.