--- name: automatica description: Use when targeting Automatica or deciding whether a systems-and-control manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the methodological-breadth-with-guarantees bar, theory rigor, the Automatica-vs-TAC routing, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. --- # Automatica (automatica) ## Journal positioning Automatica is the IFAC-affiliated flagship journal of systems and control, publishing rigorous, methodologically developed contributions across control, estimation, identification, optimization, and the analysis of dynamical systems. The defining expectation is a **method with theoretical guarantees** — stability, convergence, optimality, robustness — developed with enough breadth and depth to constitute an archival advance, not a single narrow result. Compared with its sibling `ieee-transactions-on-automatic-control`, Automatica leans toward fuller methodological development and breadth, whereas TAC also carries sharp short Technical Notes; route by the **form and length of the main result**. Application papers that tune a known controller, and simulation studies with no generalizable guarantee, are a poor fit. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's current official author guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live Automatica author information. ## When to trigger - The author names Automatica for a control, estimation, identification, or systems-theory manuscript and wants a fit/framing check. - A contribution must be re-framed from "we solved this instance" into a method with stated guarantees and developed generality. - The author is choosing between Automatica and `ieee-transactions-on-automatic-control` by the form and length of the result, or between a full paper and a brief paper. - The author needs Automatica's methodological-rigor bar and a re-routing path for application-heavy work. ## Scope & topic fit - Control synthesis and analysis: nonlinear, robust, adaptive, optimal, predictive, and geometric control, developed as a general method. - Estimation, filtering, and system identification with consistency, convergence, or error guarantees. - Networked, distributed, multi-agent, hybrid/switched, and event-triggered systems; consensus and distributed optimization with proofs. - Optimization for control, game-theoretic control, and learning-based control when the result carries rigorous stability/convergence/regret guarantees. - Stochastic systems and control; data-driven control with provable properties. ## Method & evidence bar - The central object is a **method backed by theorems** with correct, complete proofs under clearly stated, non-vacuous assumptions; breadth of applicability is valued. - Assumptions must be reasonable and explicitly discussed; a guarantee that holds only under assumptions presupposing the conclusion is not a contribution. - Numerical examples illustrate and stress-test the method; they support but never substitute for the proofs. - The development should be fuller than a single lemma: motivate the method, prove its properties, and discuss its scope and limitations. - Position precisely against the closest prior methods — weaker assumptions, wider system class, tighter bounds, constructive vs. existence, improved computation. - Notation standard and consistent; the problem formulation mathematically precise before any result is stated. ## Structure & house style - Standard journal article in the systems-and-control style; Automatica publishes full papers and shorter **Brief Papers** — match the article type to the scope and re-check current definitions and length policy on the live guide. - The introduction frames the open methodological problem and the gap, then states the contribution; it is not an application survey. - Main results are numbered theorems/propositions/lemmas with proofs (in-text or appendix per current format); a clear method statement precedes the analysis. - Figures are used purposefully — block diagrams, convergence/phase plots — and the paper rests on its theorems, not its simulations. - Keep the example section proportionate to the theoretical development. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the Elsevier anchors, then cite the current Automatica author-information page you checked. - Search the live site for "Automatica guide for authors" and follow the current Elsevier/Editorial Manager version. - Re-check article types (regular paper vs. Brief Paper), length limits, and the Automatica/Elsevier manuscript format. - Confirm reproducibility/data/code expectations for any numerical results. - Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution (CRediT), and AI-use disclosure requirements, and open-access options. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] The contribution is a method with explicit guarantees and developed generality — not one solved instance. - [ ] Every main result has a complete, correct proof under non-vacuous, discussed assumptions. - [ ] Novelty is pinned to specific prior methods (weaker assumptions / wider class / tighter bound / better computation). - [ ] The methodological development is fuller than a single short note; scope and limitations are discussed. - [ ] The problem formulation is mathematically precise before any result is stated. - [ ] Article type (regular vs. Brief Paper) matches the scope and length fits current limits. ## Common desk-reject triggers - Application/tuning paper: a known method applied to one system with no general guarantee. - Simulation-only "validation" with no theorem, or a theorem whose assumptions assume the result. - Incremental extension with no weakening of assumptions or broadening of the system class. - Incorrect, incomplete, or hand-waved proofs; inconsistent or undefined notation. - Scope mismatch: a signal-processing, pure-optimization, or machine-learning paper with control as a label. ## Re-routing decision - Rigorous theory better suited to a short Technical Note, or sharp single theorem → `ieee-transactions-on-automatic-control`. - Signal-processing estimation/detection as the core → `ieee-transactions-on-signal-processing`. - Robotics planning/control as the central contribution → `ieee-transactions-on-robotics` / `the-international-journal-of-robotics-research`. - Industrial-application control with hardware as the contribution → `ieee-transactions-on-industrial-electronics`. - Optimization theory with no control object → a dedicated optimization venue. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Automatica [Topic tags] <2–3 closest control subtopics> [Contribution type] method-with-guarantee / analysis result / identification-estimation method [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Article type] Regular paper / Brief Paper [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```