The IEEE Transactions on Communications invites the submission of technical manuscripts on topics within the scope of the IEEE Communications Society, which includes all areas indicated on the inside front cover of the Journal and those shown under the Technical Committees listing. Manuscripts reporting on original theoretical and/or experimental work of permanent reference value are welcome. In general, material which has been previously copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication will not be considered for publication in this TRANSACTIONS. Exceptions to this rule include items that have limited distribution, have appeared in Abstract form only, or have appeared only in conference proceedings; notice of such prior publication or concurrent submission elsewhere must be given at the time of submission to this TRANSACTIONS. A manuscript identical to, or largely based on, a conference paper must be so identified. All papers are reviewed by competent referees and are considered on the basis of their significance, novelty, and usefulness to the Transactions readership.
Submission Guidelines
Transactions Papers should be concisely written and may not exceed 13 double-column single-spaced pages (10-point font size, 1-inch margin on all sides) including the title, names of the authors and their complete contact information, abstract, index terms, text, equations, figures, tables, appendices if any, and all references. Figures and tables should be placed along with the text, rather than at the end of the paper. Official templates can be accessed in IEEE Template Selector (LaTeX and MS Word). You will need to click “IEEE Template Selector” and follow the instructions for the template you need. Revised papers are limited to 16 pages.
Authors are required to upload the manuscript as a PDF or Word file. Figures must be used sparingly and repetitive patterns or results omitted. Submitted manuscripts significantly exceeding these guidelines will be returned to the authors for revision before being reviewed. It is essential that each manuscript be accompanied by a 75- to 200-word abstract clearly outlining the scope and contributions of the paper and a list of up to five keywords should be included on the manuscript. The list of IEEE keywords is available by sending an email message to keywords@ieee.org. All papers should be written in English. Introductory discussion should be kept at a minimum and material published elsewhere should be referenced rather than reproduced or paraphrased. Authors should strive for maximum clarity of expression, bearing in mind that the purpose of publication is the dissemination of technical knowledge and that an excessively complex or poorly written presentation can only obscure the significance of the work described. Care should be taken in the organization of the material such that contributions of the work and a logical, consistent progression of thought are evident. It is strongly suggested that material which is not essential to the continuity of the text (e.g., proofs, derivations, or calculations) be placed in Appendixes.
Two-part papers that cannot each stand on their own merits will not be considered for publication. Papers should not include “Part I” or “Part II” in their title.
To enhance the appearance of your article on IEEEXplore®, a graphical abstract can be displayed along with traditional text. The graphical abstract should provide a clear, visual summary of your article’s findings by means of an image, animation, video, or audio clip.
NOTE: The graphical abstract is considered a part of the technical content of the article, and you must provide it for peer review during the article submission process. For more information about graphical abstracts and their specifications, please visit the IEEE Author Center website.
Resubmission of Previously Rejected Manuscripts
Authors of manuscripts rejected by any journal (including IEEE Transactions on Communications) are allowed to resubmit their manuscripts to TCOM only once if they wish to do so. That is, a manuscript which is previously rejected by two different journals is not eligible for resubmission to IEEE Transactions on Communications. At the time of submission, the corresponding author will be asked whether the manuscript is a new submission or a resubmission of a previously rejected manuscript. If the paper is a resubmission of a previously rejected TCOM submission, an explanation of the major changes and a detailed point-to-point response to the reviewers’ and editor’s comments must be uploaded. For a previous submission to another journal, the authors need to confirm that the new version addresses the reviewers’ comments adequately (however, there is no need to include a response). Submissions which do not disclose the connection to a previously rejected manuscript will be rejected without review.
Copyright Form
As of January 1, 2007, IEEE Transactions on Communications requires, when uploading a camera ready manuscript after acceptance, a signed copy of the IEEE Copyright Form. While submitting your camera ready paper, at the end of the process, after confirming your submission, you will automatically be redirected to a fully digital version of the IEEE Copyright Form. It includes an important feature (the Wizard) that, through a series of questions and replies, determines the author's copyright status and brings the author to the appropriate Form to electronically sign. As an alternative, you can also upload a scanned copy of a signed IEEE Copyright Form as a Supplementary File.
Electronic Submission
Submissions should be made using the IEEE Transactions on Communications Web-based editorial processing system at Manuscript Central. Submission instructions, including how to create an author account on the site are available on line. Submissions in Portable Document Format (PDF) are accepted. When printed, the manuscript must satisfy all the page and figure count guidelines noted above. In addition, the author will be asked to provide (i) the name, email, and contact information of all the authors; (ii) the manuscript category; and (iii) the title and a text-only version of the abstract. Only electronic submissions that conform to the respective guidelines will be accepted for review. IEEE Transactions on Communications no longer accepts hard copy submissions.
All authors should have company clearance before submission. Submitted papers are assumed to contain no proprietary material unprotected by patent or patent application; responsibility for technical content and for protection of proprietary material rests solely with the author(s) and their organizations and is not the responsibility of the IEEE or its Editorial Staff. The format of papers submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Communications should follow IEEE editorial and typographical standards, as described in "Information for IEEE Authors," available on request from the IEEE Transactions/Journals Department, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 USA or by email to trans@ieee.org.
Open Access Option
Please note that you have the option to make your article "open-access", i.e. available to non-subscribers of IEEE Xplore. Effective 1 January 2024, IEEE's open access article processing charge (APC) for all hybrid journals is US$2,495. This affects all articles that are accepted on or after 1 January 2024; articles accepted 31 December 2023 or earlier will retain the earlier rate. IEEE staff will update Information for Author PDFs and the submission guidelines on IEEE.org. If you wish for your article to be open access, please send your request to authors@ieee.org. Note that this fee is in addition to any overlength page charges you may be assessed.
More information about IEEE open access policy may be found at the IEEE Open website.
ORCID
All IEEE publications require an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) for all authors. ORCID is a persistent unique identifier for researchers and functions similarly to an article’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI). ORCIDs enable accurate attribution and improved discoverability of an author’s published work. To create an ORCID, please visit ORCID website. The author will need a registered ORCID in order to submit a manuscript or review a proof in this journal.
Follow these steps to link a ScholarOne account to a registered ORCID:
- Login to ScholarOne and click on your name in the top right corner of the screen.
- Click E-mail / Name in the dropdown menu.
- In the ORCID section at the top of the page, click the appropriate link to either register for a new ORCID or associate the account with an existing ORCID.
- A new page will open to create and/or validate your ORCID. Once the validation is complete, the new page will close and you will return to ScholarOne.
- Save the changes to your ScholarOne user account.
Authors who do not have an ORCID in their ScholarOne user account will be prompted to provide one during submission.
For more information on ORCID please visit the IEEE Support Center.
Page Charge Policy
After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the author's company or institution will be requested to pay a page charge of US$110 per printed Transactions page, for the first ten pages of a paper, to cover part of the cost of the publication. Payment of page charges for this IEEE Transactions (in keeping with journals of other professional societies) is not a prerequisite for publication. All papers submitted after 1 January 2020 that are accepted for publication are subject to a mandatory page charge of US$220 for each Transactions page exceeding ten printed pages.
Authors must provide to the Publications Editor an electronic version of their paper after acceptance (PostScript files cannot be accepted). Make sure that as you make changes to the paper version you incorporate these changes this version. Try to adhere to the accepted style of this Transactions as much as possible.
Policy on Plagiarism
All authors must comply with the IEEE Policy on Plagiarism and the IEEE Electronic Posting Policy. In addition to the IEEE policies, pre-publication author misconduct, such as double-submission or plagiarism, will result in immediate rejection of the manuscript(s), and a minimum 6 month ban on submissions to ComSoc publications by the author(s).
Consent of Co-Authors
The corresponding author of a paper accepts the responsibility for obtaining the consent from all co-authors to be designated, as such as well as their approval of all submitted, revised, and final versions of the manuscript. Failure to do so will result in immediate rejection of the manuscript and may draw further punishment from IEEE.
Guidelines for Author Supplied Electronic Text and Graphics
English language editing services can help refine the language of your article and reduce the risk of rejection without review. IEEE authors are eligible for a 10% discount at American Journal Experts; visit the American Journal Experts website to learn more. Please note these services are fee-based and do not guarantee acceptance.