The preferred document submission format is LATEX, using the alife.sty style file.
We also accept other document formats, such as Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. An alife Word template is available. However, since these formats are not well defined standards, but appear to change from release to release, and between operating systems, please also send either a postscript or PDF version of the document as well, so that discrepancies in formatting can be noted and corrected. Microsoft Word format is preferred over RTF.
We reserve the right to simply generate ``camera ready'' copy directly from the supplied postscript or PDF file.
Submission is via an online form. Deadline for initial manuscripts is 6th of May, 2002, with final copies due by 29th of July, 2002.
Standard scientific conventions of conciseness apply, so it is expected that papers should not exceed 10 pages in length. Essentially, the shorter the better, modulo having sufficient information to allow the experienced practitioner to understand the paper without having to consult the references.
Please typeset your paper as single spaced, 12pt times roman, two column style. Use the BibTeX ``aaai'' bibliography style for creating your bibliographies. This is the Havard author-year citation style.
Please pay particular attention to graphics included as part of figures. It is very easy and tempting to use bitmap images at screen resolution, which looks great on the screen, but terrible when printed on hardcopy at high resolution.
Please also consider making the source code of your ALife simulations or experiments available by either submitting the code along with your paper, or including a URL in your paper to the relevant source code. A database of code and links will be made available from this website before the conference. The importance of opening up the raw data and techniques used in science for peer review and validation is well argued on the Open ALife website. In the future, it may well become mandatory for research codes to be made available in order for the research to published, although at present this is simply a gentle suggestion in order to promote the idea.