instructions to NIPS authors

[Dave.Touretzky@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU]

I apologize for sending this message to NIPS authors to the entire
CONNECTIONISTS list, but it's the most efficient way to reach people
quickly.

The deadline for NIPS papers to arrive at Morgan Kaufmann is this
Wednesday, January 17.  There have been some requests for clarifications of
the paper format, so here they are.

First, although the instructions claim that the paper title is boldface,
the LaTeX code for \maketitle actually produces an italic title.  Go with
the code, not the documentation.  Use the italic title.

Second, note that the LaTeX \author command doesn't work in the NIPS style
file.  That's why the instructions say to format the author list manually.
This is necessary because the format will differ depending on the number of
authors.

* For a single-author paper, just center the name and address.  Simple.

* For a two-author paper where the authors are from different
institutions, I suggest the following formatting code:
	\begin{center}
	\parbox{2in}{\begin{center}
	   {\bf David S. Touretzky}\\
	   School of Computer Science\\
	   Carnegie Mellon University\\
	   Pittsburgh, PA 15213
	   \end{center}} \hfill
	\parbox{2in}{\begin{center}
	   {\bf Deirdre W. Wheeler}\\
	   Department of Linguistics\\
	   University of Pittsburgh\\
	   Pittsburgh, PA 15260
	   \end{center}}
	\end{center}

If the authors are from the same institution, do it this way:

	\begin{center}
	{\bf Ajay N. Jain \ \ \ Alex H. Waibel}\\
	School of Computer Science\\
	Carnegie Mellon University\\
	Pittsburgh, PA 15213
	\end{center}


* For a three-author paper, the instructions advise centering the name and
address of the first author, making the second author flush-left, and the
third author flush-right.  Some people have objected that putting the first
author in the middle makes it look like he/she is really the second author.
If you wish to deviate from the suggested format for three-author papers,
go ahead.  Do whatever you think is reasonable.

* If you have more than three authors, or some other special problem not
covered by the above, use your own best judgement about format.

Remember that your paper should be at most 8 pages long, and you need to
turn in an indexing form and "Permission to Publish" form along with your
camera-ready copy.  The proceedings are due out in April.  They can be
ordered now from Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Mateo, CA.  An
example of a correct citation to this proceedings is:

  Barto, A. G., and Sutton, R. S. (1990) Sequential decision problems and
  neural networks.  In D. S. Touretzky (ed.), {\it Advances in Neural
  Information Processing Systems 2.} San Mateo, CA:  Morgan Kaufmann.

-- Dave