Following very successful Symposium, we are planning to publish a Special Issue on Nonparametric Approach to Knowledge Discovery (tentative title) from AISM, Vol. 54, No.1, March 2002.

Papers designated for this special issue must reach the editorial office by March 31, 2001. Please indicate the special issue "Nonparametric Approach to Knowledge Discovery" in your cover letter (or email). All submissions will be reviewed according to the usual standard appropriate for research articles. For information about the AISM and Scope, and Information for Authors, please visit the AISM home page http://www.ism.ac.jp/~nagasima/editsec/aism-e.html

In ordinary review process, it usually takes 2 years from submission to the publication. However, we think timely and rapid publication is very important. Therefore, we discussed with the Editor-in-Chief of AISM, and was announced that if we can send the accepted manuscripts by the end of August, the Special Issue can be published in Vol. 54, No.1, March 2002. The Guest Editors, Tomoyuki Higuchi and Genshiro Kitagawa, have the right to accept the papers for the special issue only by August 31, 2001. After that the papers should be either rejected or passed to the ordinary editorial process.

To reduce the editorial and publication process to about a half, we will ask to review the paper within one month.

The procedure for submission of papers includes the following guidelines:

1. The paper must be in English.

2. If at all possible, submission should be made electronically, by e-mail using LaTeX209 system with a particular style file made by the publisher (Kluwer Academic, Japan). Both style file and example of source file are posted on the Symposium Home Page
   /~higuchi/index_jp/FTSM/FTSM2/index.html
   
   Style file : http://www.ism.ac.jp/~higuchi/sympo2/aism/aism_ftsm2.sty
   Source file: http://www.ism.ac.jp/~higuchi/sympo2/aism/exaism_ftsm2.tex
   
   (Currently AISM is typeset by plain TeX to meet various special requirements for AISM. Sorry for inconvenience for using LaTeX209)

3. All papers must be submitted no later than March 31, 2001 to
   Tomoyuki Higuchi
   The Institute of Statistical Mathematics
   4-6-7 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-8569 Japan
   email: higuchi@ism.ac.jp
   FAX: +81-3-5421-8749
   

If you have any questions concerning this, please feel free to contact by e-mail at higuchi@ism.ac.jp.

Tomoyuki Higuchi and Genshiro Kitagawa
Guest Editors
Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics