It is important to understand IEEE’s position on submission and peer review policies. Multiple submission, prior publication, and plagiarism are addressed in IEEE’s submission policies. Editor responsibilities and how articles from embargoed countries are handled are explained in IEEE’s peer review policies.
Authors must understand and abide by IEEE’s submission policies.
Back to TopIEEE policy requires that authors should only submit original work that has neither appeared elsewhere for publication, nor is under review for another refereed publication.
This means that authors must disclose all prior publication(s) and current submissions when submitting an article. Section 8.2.4.F of the IEEE PSPB Operations Manual provides guidelines for handling reported cases of authors who have submitted the same article to two or more publications, or who have not properly cited the reuse of their previously published work in newly submitted articles.
Back to TopThe guidelines recognize that it is common in technical publishing for material to be presented at various stages of its evolution. As one example, this can take the form of publishing early ideas in a workshop, more developed work in a conference, and fully developed contributions as journal or transactions articles. This publication process is an important means of scientific communication. The editor of a publication may choose to re-publish existing material for a variety of reasons, including promoting wider distribution and serving readers by aggregating special material in a single publication. This practice continues to be recognized and accepted by the IEEE. At the same time, the IEEE requires that this evolutionary process be fully referenced by the author.
Authors submitting articles must disclose whether there are prior publications, e.g., conference articles, by the authors that are similar, whether published or submitted. They must also include information that very clearly states how the new submission differs from the previously published work(s). Such articles should be cited in the submitted article.
Back to Top“Multiple submissions” is defined as a given article being concurrently under active consideration by two or more publications. It is at the discretion of each IEEE Organization Unit whether or not to allow multiple submissions. Authors shall inform editors of multiple submissions of articles.
Back to TopThe IEEE PSPB Operations Manual in Section 8.2.1, describes plagiarism in the following way: “IEEE defines plagiarism as the use of someone else’s prior ideas, processes, results, or words without explicitly acknowledging the original author and source. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and is considered a serious breach of professional conduct, with potentially severe ethical and legal consequences. Section 8.2.4.D provides detailed guidelines for a) handling allegations of plagiarism, b) applying appropriate corrective actions when findings of plagiarism have been reached, and c) referencing previously published material.”
The guidelines in Section 8.2.4 of the PSPB Operations Manual also describe a method for investigating an allegation of plagiarism. Section 8.2.4 states: “In considering the allegation, the responsible person shall appoint an independent ad-hoc committee of experts in the topic to confidentially investigate and make a recommendation on the allegation to the responsible person.
Additional information is available at:
Back to TopAuthors submitting manuscripts for review should be aware of the IEEE policy on “Electronic Information Dissemination”. The policy applies to authors who post part or all of a submitted manuscript on a Web site. The policy is found in the IEEE Publications Services and Products Board (PSPB) Operations Manual, in Sections 8.1.9A and 8.1.9B, as follows.
Back to TopThe following copyright notice must be displayed on the initial screen displaying IEEE-copyrighted material electronically:
“© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, collecting new collected works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.”
Back to TopUpon submitting an article to the IEEE for review and possible publication, the author must add the following notice to the first screen of any of his/her previously posted electronic preprint versions of this paper:
“This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible.”
When IEEE accepts the work for publication, the author must add the IEEE copyright notice shown in Section 8.1.9A to any previously posted versions of the particular paper submitted and provide IEEE with the electronic address (URL, ftp address, etc.) of the primary electronic posting.
When IEEE publishes the work, the author must replace the previous electronic version of the accepted paper with either: (1) the full citation to the IEEE work or (2) the pdf of the final accepted manuscript, including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation. Note that the author cannot post the final IEEE version, but can post the final submitted version of the accepted paper.
Back to TopExcerpted from the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB) Operations Manual, sections 8.1.1.E. Also see section 8.2.1.B.6.
Authors of articles reporting on research involving human subjects or animals, including but extending beyond medical research, shall include a statement in the article that the research was performed under the oversight of an institutional review board or equivalent local/regional body, including the official name of the IRB/ethics committee, or include an explanation as to why such a review was not conducted. For research involving human subjects, authors shall also report that consent from the human subjects in the research was obtained or explain why consent was not obtained.
Back to TopThe use of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in an article (including but not limited to text, figures, images, and code) shall be disclosed in the acknowledgments section of any article submitted to an IEEE publication. The AI system used shall be identified, and specific sections of the article that use AI-generated content shall be identified and accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the level at which the AI system was used to generate the content.
The use of AI systems for editing and grammar enhancement is common practice and, as such, is generally outside the intent of the above policy. In this case, disclosure as noted above is recommended.
Back to TopAn article submitted for publication to IEEE should be original work submitted to a single IEEE publication. The article should not have been published previously and should not be concurrently under consideration for publication elsewhere. The IEEE assumes that material submitted to its publications and information products is properly available for general dissemination for the readership of those publications and products. It is the responsibility of the authors, not the IEEE, to determine if disclosure of their material requires the prior consent of other parties. If prior consent is required, then authors must obtain permission prior to article submission.
Recycling of material in a new document happens when the material in the new document is identical, or substantively equivalent in both form and content, to that of the source. At times, it may be necessary for authors to recycle portions of their own previously published work or to include another author’s material.
When an author recycles text, charts, photographs, or other graphics from his/her own previously published material, the author shall:
Excerpted from the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB) Operations Manual, Section 8.2.1.D, in relation to Editors of IEEE Journals, Transactions, Letters, and Magazines.
Conflicts of interest, whether actual, perceived, or potential, must be avoided. IEEE defines a conflict of interest as any situation, transaction, or relationship in which someone’s decisions or actions could materially affect that individual’s professional, personal, financial, or business concerns. A potential conflict of interest occurs when an individual might have a conflict of interest based on his or her responsibility to IEEE. A perceived conflict of interest happens when a third party might reasonably conclude that an individual’s private interests could improperly influence the performance of his or her responsibility to IEEE. Examples of conflicts of interest include:
Reviewers and editors who have a conflict of interest should recuse themselves from the peer review process for that article.
Back to TopThis policy on handling articles from authors in embargoed countries is based on the ruling IEEE received from the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in December 2004.
The following activities may be done.
IEEE is free to publish such articles once they pass peer review.
For more information on OFAC go to http://legal.ieee.org/compliance/ofac.
