Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Now that the Lisbon Conference is over, time has come not only to treasure our memories of the event, but also -- and especially -- to look ahead and ensure that the forthcoming Special Issue of JRNC will constitute a comprehensive and flawless record of the NAMLS-9 Proceedings. The way I see it, that’s more than just a professional, moral obligation. An eventual set of first-rate papers will likely be an invaluable asset as a marketing device, so to speak, for attracting new participants to future instalments of the NAMLS series. The NAMLS-9 Publication Committee is counting on each and every one of you to help us meet the former goals.

Please click on the links above to download a blank review form [ReviewForm_blank.doc], plus the specific Guidelines for the Proceedings of NAMLS-9 in JRNC [PaperGuidelines.pdf]. The latter document, whose relevant parts for reviewing are highlighted, also contains a direct link to the general Instructions for Authors of the JRNC, available in HTML and PDF at the Journal website. I urge you to be especially careful with the format requirements -- both general and specific -- other than, of course, all aspects of scientific merit. Please bear in mind that non-compliant manuscripts, even if technically acceptable, are surely going to slow down the whole process, and may eventually be withdrawn from the NAMLS-9/JRNC Special Issue.

Allow me one last remark about format requirements. Browsing through the manuscripts, I’ve noticed that some of them include colour figures and/or drawings. The NAMLS-9 Publication Committee will NOT accept any colour items in the revised versions, only black-and-white and greyscale. Reviewers dealing with such manuscripts should issue a mandatory statement for their Authors to have ALL colour items converted into black-and-white and/or greyscale tones, and the corresponding captions/legends rephrased if need be.

Please use one form per review, and fill in all fields in each form. Fields are of unlimited length, so you can write everything you may deem necessary for your comments/ remarks/suggestions. Outside the fields, the document is locked. Please don’t use fancy filenames when returning your complete forms. I suggest that you just replace "blank" by the paper code "A###", as in [ReviewForm_A###.doc] or [ReviewForm_A###.rtf].

Word 97-2003 Document [*.doc] and Rich Text Format [*.rtf] are the only acceptable formats -- [*.docx] or [*.pdf] files will NOT be accepted. When you’ve done with your assignment(s), just send the form(s) to me by e-mail [apacheco@ist.utl.pt]. Should you have been assigned more than one review, you may send them together or one-by-one, whatever suits your preference -- really simple, isn’t it...?!

Last, yet by no means least, a word about the deadline (15 November, 2008). Please do your job(s) at your pace of choice, but please respect the reviewing schedule as well -- and the sooner I get to hear from you, the better. Do keep in mind that every Reviewer is also an Author, and I strongly suspect that none of you would like to have your own manuscript(s) stuck with some dawdling Colleague…

Thanks in advance for your cooperation, and please accept my apologies for this somewhat long message.

On behalf of NAMLS-9 Publication Committee.

Sincerely,

Adriano Pacheco