ABSTRACT

In this article instructions are given to authors of papers intended for publication in the South African Actuarial Journal (SAAJ) with regard to its editorial policy and the format required by the Journal.

KEYWORDS

Publication; guidelines; South African Actuarial Journal

CONTACT DETAILS

Professor Rob Thomson, School of Statistics & Actuarial Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050. Tel: (0)11 6465332. Fax: (0)11 3396640. E-mail: [email protected].

In this article instructions are given to authors of papers intended for publication in the South African Actuarial Journal (SAAJ) with regard to its editorial policy and the format required by the Journal. The content of this article is arranged as follows. Section 2 explains the editorial policy of SAAJ. Authors are advised to read this before deciding whether to submit their articles to SAAJ. Section 3 gives details of the format required. Authors requiring help with research methods are advised to refer to Guidelines on Research Methods, which is available on the SAAJ web page. It would be helpful to the editor if authors complied with the standards of style applied by SAAJ as set out in Guidelines on Style for the South African Actuarial Journal, which is also available on the SAAJ web page. This article itself complies with the format and style required.

2.1 SAAJ is published by ASSA. It is issued free to members of ASSA. It is also available on the Society's website for access via the Internet. Its editorial policy is set and implemented by the Editor on the advice of an Editorial Advisory Panel, membership of which includes researchers of international standing in actuarial and related fields, as well as local actuaries who have experience in research. Rigorous editorial standards will be maintained.

2.2 The focus of SAAJ is on actuarial research–particularly, but not exclusively, on research of relevance to South Africa. The subject matter must, however, lie within the scope of actuarial work and be relevant and of interest to at least a minority of the profession in South Africa.

2.3 Papers must be original in order to be eligible for consideration. Useful introductions or reviews of subjects new to many actuaries, or useful descriptions of present practice or possible future practice will, however, be considered original if similar works are not available elsewhere. Such introductions, reviews or descriptions should be couched in language accessible to actuaries. The publication of a paper in the transactions of a conference or in an unrefereed periodical, or the distribution of a paper by the authors, will not generally preclude it from being considered as an original paper. If, however, any part of a paper submitted for publication has been published or distributed in any manner, this should be drawn to the attention of the Editor.

2.4 In general, papers should be no longer than about 20 pages in SAAJ (about 8000 words). Longer papers will be considered, but may have to be shortened, or to be restructured into two or more parts if they are otherwise suitable. Authors are advised to contact the Editor in advance if they suspect that their papers will exceed these limits.

2.5 It is the responsibility of the authors of a paper to clear copyright matters with the relevant parties. Immediately on the date of acceptance for publication by SAAJ, a paper becomes the copyright of ASSA.

2.6 Papers may be submitted in English, or in Afrikaans with an English translation of the abstract. Authors are advised, however, that if it is not possible to find Afrikaans-speaking scrutineers who are sufficiently conversant with the subject of their papers, it may be necessary to refer the paper back to the authors for translation into English.

2.7 A paper may be submitted to the Editor by any author or group of authors, regardless of whether they are members of ASSA. All papers are scrutinised by at least two scrutineers nominated by the Editorial Advisory Panel or selected by the Editor. The names of the scrutineers are not disclosed to the authors unless a scrutineer wishes to be known. Authors are advised not to nominate scrutineers. On the advice of the scrutineers, the Editor decides whether to accept or reject each paper, or whether to refer it back to the authors for amendment or revision. It should be noted that acceptance without amendment is relatively unlikely. The decision of the Editor is final. At the discretion of the Editor, articles other than refereed papers may be published: such articles are indicated accordingly.

2.8 Authors should not rely on the scrutineers to check the accuracy of any numerical calculations whose results are shown in the paper. If, however, the scrutineers find any errors in such calculations, it may be expected that the paper will be rejected. Notwithstanding any alterations made on the recommendations of scrutineers or the Editor, authors remain solely responsible for the accuracy of the contents of their papers.

2.9 Authors should be advised within three months of receipt of a paper by the Editor whether it is accepted for publication and if so what amendments or revision are required. However, it is sometimes difficult to find appropriate scrutineers and, although scrutineers are asked to make their comments within at most two months, it is not always possible for them to do so. When a revised version of the paper is received by the Editor, copies of this will be sent to the scrutineers and the process is repeated.

2.10 When the authors receive a report from the scrutineers, they should ensure that each of the scrutineer's comments is attended to. If it is not obvious how the authors have amended the paper in response to a particular comment made by a scrutineer, they should explain their amendments in a covering note to the Editor. The authors may defend the paper against comments made by a scrutineer. However, it is recommended that any such defence should generally be made in the paper rather than in a note to the Editor. This may entail explaining both the criticism and the defence in the paper. Such defences will generally enhance the quality of the paper. It should be borne in mind that the scrutineers have been chosen as being particularly well versed in the subject of the paper. If they appear to have misunderstood something in the paper, it is quite likely that other readers will do so too. Care should therefore be taken to avoid such misunderstandings by suitable amendment of the paper. If any criticism is unclear, the authors should query it with the Editor before resubmitting the paper.

2.11 After acceptance the authors see one set of proofs for checking, subject to a deadline indicated by the Editor. Authors who are not members of ASSA will each receive one copy of the issue in which their article is published.

2.12 Authors of papers read at conventions or sessional meetings of the Actuarial Society of South Africa are invited to submit them (after amendment, if necessary to conform to the Guidelines to Authors) for publication in the Journal. A reader who wishes to respond to such a paper may inform the Editor accordingly. Once a paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal, the title, authors' names and abstract are placed on the Journal's web page. If a reader wishes to read such a paper with a view to responding to it, he or she may inform the Editor accordingly. Unless specifically requested by the respondents, responses to a paper will not themselves be refereed, but the authors of the original paper will have the right to reply in the same issue. In order to avoid delays in the publication of the Journal, it may be necessary to apply time constraints to readers' responses and authors' rights to reply. Publication of responses to papers will in any case be at the discretion of the Editor on the advice of the Editorial Advisory Panel.

2.13 Copies of forthcoming issues may be ordered from ASSA at PO Box 4464, Cape Town 8000. Limited numbers of copies will also be retained by ASSA for subsequent sale. All correspondence with regard to editorial policy and the publication of papers should be addressed to the Editor, Rob Thomson, whose contact details appear at the start of this article.

3.1 GENERAL REMARKS

3.1.1 This section gives guidance on format to authors, or to their secretaries, who are preparing papers for publication in SAAJ. If they are followed, then the printing process will be made much easier. This document is laid out in the format that should be followed. Authors are not required to conform in detail to this format, except as described in this section; the format is applied during the publication process. In particular, conventions with regard to line spaces and indenting, and variations between bold and plain typefaces, need not be adhered to by authors. Authors are requested to avoid the use of unnecessary formatting information. In particular, indenting should be applied by means of tabs, not multiple spaces.

3.1.2 It is assumed that authors will prepare text using a word-processing system on a computer, and are able to submit the text on a diskette. The publication system can read diskettes prepared by several different word-processing systems, so it is convenient if the text is laid out in the required format. This document has been prepared on MS Word 97, in the format required for SAAJ. If the author wishes to prepare text on a system that may not be readable by the Editor, this should be discussed with the Editor before submission.

3.1.3 Text is prepared on A4 paper, as this is, although it is altered by the publishing system to fit on the A5 size of SAAJ. This document uses the Times New Roman font with a normal font size of 12 point, with single line spacing. Italics should be avoided except to denote foreign words normally italicised in English usage or titles of publications.

3.2 LAYOUT

3.2.1 Introduction

Each paper begins with:

• title;
• authors' names;
• presented at (if applicable);
• abstract;
• keyword;
• contact details; and
• quotation (if desired).

These are laid out as shown at the top of this document, and as described below.

3.2.2 Title of the paper

The title should not include abbreviations.

3.2.3 Authors' names

3.2.3.1 The sequence is: initials; surname. No qualifications are given. There are no spaces or points between initials.

3.2.3.3 The order of authors' names is up to the authors themselves. Readers may interpret the ordering, particularly if it is non-alphabetic, to reflect the relative contributions of the respective authors.

3.2.4 Abstract

3.2.4.1 Every paper requires an abstract; this should be a summary of the paper, in one long or two or three short paragraphs. The abstract is often copied by other journals that print lists of papers with abstracts, so it should be written in a way that will encourage others to read the paper. It is preceded by the word ‘ABSTRACT’.

3.2.4.2 Only paragraphs after the first are indented.

3.2.5 Keywords

3.2.5.1 Next come keywords; these are also used by other journals and in citation indices, so choose words that give an indication of what is of interest in the paper. Choose normally not more than about five keywords. The list of keywords is preceded by the word ‘KEYWORDS’.

3.2.5.2 The keywords themselves are not indented. Only the first has an initial capital letter. They are separated by semi-colons (;) followed by one space. There is no point (.) after the last keyword.

3.2.6 Contact Details

The author's contact details (or if there are more than one, those of one of the authors) are shown under the heading ‘CONTACT DETAILS’. The details to be given are: title, given name, surname, postal address (including country if not in South Africa), all separated by commas, followed by ‘; Tel:’, the telephone number preceded by the country code if not in South Africa and the area code; ‘; Fax:’, the fax number similarly stated; ‘E-mail:’ and the e-mail address.

3.2.7 Quotation

Some authors like to include a quotation at the start of their papers. This is acceptable. If it is done, the quotation comes next, followed by the name of the author and possibly the source of the quotation. There is no point (.) at the end.

3.3 THE MAIN TEXT

3.3.1 The main text of the paper comes next. This is always separated into sections, numbered 1, 2 etc. Each section may be subdivided into subsections, numbered 1.1, 1.2 etc., and these in turn may be subdivided into sub-subsections, numbered 1.1.1, 1.1.2 etc. Finally there are paragraphs, which may be numbered 1.1, 1.2 etc. or 1.1.1, 1.1.2 etc., or 1.1.1.1, 1.1.1.2 etc., depending on the level of subsections needed. Never go beyond four levels of numbering.

3.3.2 Even if the author's word-processor is able to number paragraphs automatically, such features should not be used.

3.3.3 A section is headed with the section number (e.g. 1), followed by a point (.), then a tab space, then the title of the section, in full capitals.

3.3.4 A subsection starts with its number (e.g. 1.1), followed by a tab space (no point), then the subsection title, in full capitals.

3.3.5 A sub-subsection starts with its number (e.g. 1.1.1), followed by a tab space (no point), then the sub-subsection title, with capitals for the initial letters of important words.

3.3.6 A paragraph under a major section heading starts with its number (e.g. 1.1), followed by one tab space (no point), then the text. A paragraph in a subsection or sub-subsection is indented one tab space, then starts with its number (e.g. 1.2.3 or 1.2.3.4 as appropriate), followed by one tab space (no point), then the text. Avoid using a new paragraph for each sentence, except where appropriate.

3.3.7 If a section contains only one paragraph, that paragraph does not need a number.

3.3.8 There is often a need to refer to another section or paragraph in the text. In this case refer to sections, subsections and sub-subsections all as, e.g. ‘section 1’, ‘section 2.1’ or ‘sections 3.2.1 and 3.2.2’; refer to paragraphs as, e.g. ¶4.1, ¶¶4.2.1 to 4.2.4 etc. Put ‘paragraph’ if you do not have the symbol ¶ available.

3.3.9 There should be only one space between sentences, which are separated by a point (.). Similarly, there should be only one space after a colon (:) or semi-colon (;). However, do not put any spaces after the last point in a paragraph.

3.4 POINTS

3.3.1 Sometimes items are best set out as a series of points. These can be introduced with (1), (2) etc., with (a), (b) etc, or with a series of dashes (—) (but not with ‘bullets’ (•)). In each case they are fully justified to the left margin, i.e. not indented, unless dashed points come within a lettered point, in which case they should be indented one tab space. The text within a point should be indented and aligned. See 3.2.1.

3.4.2 A list of points should be introduced with a colon (:) at the end of the preceding line. If the text in each point is short, each should start with a small letter, and should end with a semi-colon (;), except the last, which should end with a point (.), and the second-last, which should end with ‘; and’. Each point should be grammatically consistent with the introduction, and grammatically parallel to the other points, so that the whole reads as one sentence. Points should not commence with capital letters unless they are sentences. If the text in each point is longer, amounting to one or more sentences, then each should start with a capital and end with a point, and should be structured as a complete sentence. A blank line should be inserted at the end of a list of points.

3.5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Some authors like to include acknowledgements to those who have helped them in the development of their paper. This should appear at the end of the main text, introduced by the word ‘ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS’. They should not be too fulsome.

3.6 REFERENCES

3.6.1 All work done by other authors and used or referred to in the text should be attributed to the authors. If an entire section is based on a particular author's work, this should be made clear. Where it is appropriate to quote the actual words of another author, they should be shown accordingly (see ¶3.4 of Guidelines on Style). Extensive quotations may require permission from the authors concerned; this is the responsibility of the authors of the paper.

3.6.2 References in the text should be in the form: Author (year of publication), e.g. Smith (1995) or Author (unpublished), e.g. Brown (unpublished) if it is an unpublished document. Where possible, published works should be referenced in preference to unpublished works. A paper read at a conference is treated as unpublished unless it is published in transactions or proceedings of the conference. An article on the worldwide web is treated as unpublished and should be referenced accordingly. An article accepted for publication but not yet published should be referenced as, e.g., Malan (forthcoming). An article submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be treated as unpublished.

3.6.3 If there are two authors, join their names by ‘&’, not ‘and’, e.g. Van der Merwe & Nkomo (1996). If there are three authors put e.g. Smith, Van der Merwe & Nkomo (1997). If there are more than three, put e.g. Smith et al. (1998). If you refer to more than one paper by one author with the same year, or both unpublished or forthcoming, put e.g. Smith (1998a), Smith (1998b) etc. or Brown (unpublished a), Brown (unpublished b). If the reference itself is in parentheses, put e.g. (Smith, 1995). Such a reference may be used after a sentence or at the end of a paragraph that is attributed to the author concerned. If you need to refer frequently to the same work and the reference is lengthy, put e.g. ‘Smith, Van der Merwe & Nkomo (1997) (referred to as SVN)’, and refer to it thereafter as SVN. Instead of referring in full to the reference last cited, ibid. may be inserted in brackets. Instead of inserting the date in a reference already cited, op. cit. may be substituted, e.g. Smith (op. cit.) or (Smith, op. cit.) provided there is no possibility of confusion. References in the text are taken as referring to the authors, and not to the work, unless the context implies otherwise. Personal pronouns referring to them should be chosen accordingly, and where there is more than one author, verbs following them should be in the plural. References such as ‘Smith's (1995) model’ may also be used.

3.6.4 A list of references appears at the end of the main text, but before appendices. References are placed in alphabetical order by author, and by date order for any one author. References in the appendices should appear in the same list as those in the main text.

3.6.5 The list of references should be headed by the word ‘REFERENCES’.

3.6.6 Each reference should be given in the required format. Each begins with the surname of the author, followed by a comma and a space, followed by initials (not full forenames), with no spaces or points between. If there is more than one name, each is put in the same form, with ‘&’ between the last two, and a comma between earlier names. Put all the names, however many there are. Some publications do not have an obvious author; in that case the name of a committee or government department will do, but it should be the same name as used in the main text.

3.6.7 After the authors' names comes the year of publication, in full, in parentheses, e.g. (1999). The year may be followed by a small letter to distinguish works by the same author in the same year, e.g. (1998a), (1998b) etc. The closing parenthesis is followed by a point and a space.

3.6.8 Next comes the title of the piece referred to. The style of this depends on what it is. If it is a book, the title is put in italics, with initial capitals for important words, and this is followed by a point and one space. After this come the name of the publisher, a comma, and the town of publication, in Roman type.

3.6.9 If the piece referred to is an article in a journal, the title of the article is in Roman type, with initial capitals only for the first word, followed by a point and one space. Then comes the name of the journal in which it appears, in italics, with initial capitals as appropriate. The titles of actuarial journals that are familiar to the readers may be abbreviated as in the list of actuarial journals on the SAAJ web page, but others should be spelled out in full. The name of the journal is followed by a space, then the volume number, then another comma and a space, then the first page number. Include the last page number too (excluding leading digits corresponding to those of the first), with an n-dash (—) or hyphen (-) separating the numbers.

3.6.10 A source from the worldwide web should be documented as unpublished, unless it is a reviewed journal, regularly published by an independent publisher. In the latter case it should be referenced as a journal; no details of the website address are required. Otherwise, the name of the site should be shown, followed by a comma, a space and the uniform resource locator (URL) in the conventional format, i.e. accessmethod://machine.name/directory/file.

3.6.11 As indicated above, an article submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be treated as unpublished; the name of the journal should not be stated.

3.6.12 There are other sorts of references, and they need to be laid out appropriately. The purpose is to allow the interested reader to find the piece referred to, for example in a library, so enough information must be given for it to be found, but not more. For illustrative purposes, references of various types are set out in Appendix A in the format required.

3.7 APPENDICES

Often it is appropriate to put supplementary material, series of tables or figures, data sources, formulae, proofs etc. into separate appendices. These follow the main text (and after acknowledgements and the list of references). Appendices are labelled Appendix A, Appendix B etc. An appendix is treated like a section of the paper; subsections and paragraphs are labelled, e.g. A.1, A.2.3 etc. Each appendix starts on a new page, and is headed, e.g. APPENDIX A, in capitals, with the title of the appendix in a similar style below it.

3.8 TABLES

3.8.1 Many papers include tables of various kinds. These may be very short, and are treated as text tables, holding their normal place in the text. Tables of any larger size should be numbered and headed, so that they can be moved to an appropriate place in the text. Normally the printer places them just after the paragraph in which they are first referred to, or at the next convenient point thereafter, which may be at the top of the next page. A long series of tables is best put into an appendix.

3.8.2 Tables can be numbered either as Table 1, Table 2 etc, consecutively throughout the text, or within each section, as e.g. Table 3.1, Table 3.2 etc., within Section 3. A large table that has to be split into several sections might be numbered e.g. Table 3.1a, Table 3.1b etc. Tables in appendices should be labelled, e.g. Table C.1, or Table C.1.2.

3.8.3 Tables are referred to in the text as, e.g. Table 3.1 or Tables 3.1 to 3.6, with an initial capital T.

3.8.4 A numbered table has a heading, placed above it, that starts e.g. Table 3, followed by a point, then one space, then the title of the table, with an initial capital, but no other capitals, and with no final point. It is better if a table can fit vertically on the page (in portrait style), but a wide table may need to go sideways (in landscape style). For a table that is to be placed vertically on or within one page, the author may enter it in the document where it is to appear. The word-processor's tabling system may be used for this purpose. Otherwise, the author should show where the table is to be entered by typing, e.g. "ENTER TABLE 3.1 ABOUT HERE." and the table should be included in a separate file. (A spreadsheet file may be used for this purpose.) It is not necessary for the author to be concerned about the layout of tables; this will be seen to during the publishing process. It must be clear, however, which headings and sub-headings relate to each column or row of entries.

3.9 FIGURES

3.9.1 Many papers require figures, diagrams or graphs. These are usually referred to as ‘figures’. Similar comments apply to figures as to tables. Often figures are graphs, drawn by means of a graph plotting system. No colour should be used. The author should show where the figure is to be entered by typing, e.g. "ENTER FIGURE 3.1 ABOUT HERE." If the figure is prepared electronically by means of a standard system, it should be included in a separate file. (A spreadsheet file may be used for this purpose. A separate file should be used for each figure and unnecessary data should not be included.) Otherwise, each figure must be submitted in camera-ready form, in black and white on clean white paper.

3.9.2 A figure should be designed to give the maximum of information with the minimum of print. A good book on how to design graphs is Tufte (1983). In general, use only left-hand and bottom axes; make sure that both are appropriately labelled. Use a vertical logarithmic scale when it is more suitable to do so (e.g. for mortality rates or share prices).

3.9.3 Figures can be numbered either as Figure 1, Figure 2 etc. consecutively throughout the text, or within each section, as e.g. Figure 4.1, Figure 4.2 etc., within section 4. Figures in appendices should be labelled, e.g. Figure D.1 or Figure D.1.2, within Appendix D.

3.9.4 Figures are referred to in the text as, e.g. Figure 4.1, or Figures 5.1 to 5.6, with initial capital F.

3.9.5 A numbered figure has a caption, placed below it, in Roman type, starting e.g. Figure 4.1, followed by a point, then one space, then the title of the figure, with an initial capital, but no other capitals, and with no final point. The caption should be shown with the figure on the file or sheet of paper used for it.

3.9.6 If a figure is submitted in the size in which it will appear in publication, text in the figure should be in 12-point Roman type. If it is larger, the typeface used should be proportionately larger, but should still be in Roman type. Figures should not be submitted if they need to be enlarged. The maximum dimensions of a figure with 12-point type are 118 by 170 mm.

3.10 RUNNING HEADINGS, FOOTERS AND PAGE NUMBERS

Running headings and footers should not be used. The pages should be numbered in the top right-hand corner using the author's word-processing system.

3.11 FORM AND DATE OF SUBMISSION

The paper should be submitted to the Editor in electronic form either by e-mail or by post. Subject to alternative arrangements with the Editor, a paper for inclusion in a particular year's volume should reach the author by 30 November the previous year.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author acknowledges the help of Mrs AD Hart, on whose work (Hart, unpublished) section 3 is based. The contribution of Professor AD Wilkie is also acknowledged.

REFERENCES

• unpublished material: Brown (unpublished a), an article on the Internet, Brown (unpublished b), a paper distributed at a convention of the Actuarial Society, and Brown (unpublished c), a document distributed by a firm of consultants;
• a paper accepted for publication in a journal: Malan (forthcoming);
• journal articles: Smith (1995, 1998b) and Smith et al. (1997);
• a dissertation: Smith (1998a);
• a chapter (Smith et al., 1998) in an edited book (Davidson & Henderson, 1998); and
• a book: Van der Merwe & Nkomo (1996).

Note that, although a dissertation (or thesis) is unpublished, it is dated as if it were published.

REFERENCES

Brown, JD (unpublished a). Modelling the actuary. Actuarial Society of South Africa, http://www.assa.org.za/downloads/journals/brown.pdf

Brown, JD (unpublished b). The role of actuaries in healthcare. Convention, Actuarial Society of South Africa, 2000

Brown, JD (unpublished c). The WW survey of South African insurers, 2000. Unpublished document, White & Wong Financial Consultants Ltd, Johannesburg

Davidson, AL & Henderson, RB (eds.) (1998). Social Security in Africa, 2nd edition, revised by EF Molefe. Baobab Press, Pretoria

Malan, FK (forthcoming). AIDS mortality in South Africa. Forthcoming in SAAJ

Smith, JC (1995). The use of models in actuarial science. European Actuarial Journal 12 (1), 113—38

Smith, JC (1998a). Benefit targeting in defined-contribution retirement funds. Unpublished MSc dissertation, School of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Smith, JC (1998b). On the analysis of surplus of defined-benefit pension funds. TASSA 5, 58—73

Smith, JC, Jackson, RN, Anderson, VA & Williamson, DK (1998). A history of social security in South Africa. In Davidson & Henderson (1998: 135—79)

Smith, JC, Van der Merwe, WL & Nkomo, PJ (1997). The role of actuaries in the creation of financial security. SAAJ 4, 143-82

Van der Merwe, WL & Nkomo, PJ (1996). The Population of South Africa. Jackal Press, Johannesburg