Editor in Chief Information for Magazines

• Staff posts the CFP online and emails the URL to the EIC/designee for promotion.
• The group e-mail alias is created and shared with the guest editors.
• The issue is opened in ScholarOne.

The IEEE provides video tutorials on various aspects of the ScholarOne Manuscripts system on its “ScholarOne Training: Submission and Peer Review” webpage.

Accept

An accept means accepting the submission “as is” with no further changes required by the reviewers. The submission will not be seen again by the editor or by the reviewers.

Major Revision

A major revision means that the submission should go back to the original reviewers for a second round of reviews. We strongly discourage editors from making a recommendation based on their own review of the manuscript if a major revision had been previously required.

If a major revision is recommended, the revision is assigned the original editor. The magazine administrator will send it out for a second round of reviews. Usually, the original reviewers are used for the revised manuscript. The editor should inform the magazine administrator if an original reviewer should not review the revised version. Any revision in length by more than 10 percent should be a major revision.

Minor Revision

The minor revision should not go back to the reviewers. Any revision in length by more than 10 percent should be a major revision.

If a minor revision is recommended, the magazine administrator will send the revision to the original Editor. The Editor will evaluate the revision, make a final recommendation, and send the recommendation to the EIC. The EIC will make a decision and will notify the author of the decision, blind-copying the editor.

Reject

The manuscript is not suitable for publication.

Administrative Reject

The editor rejects the manuscript without assigning it to reviewers due to significant deficiencies such as (but not limited to) poor quality, not technically sound, or no new findings.

Out of Scope

The manuscript does not fall within the scope of the journal. Please suggest a more suitable magazine or journal for submission if applicable.

For editors of special issues (guest editors), the deadlines may differ dramatically.  For regular submissions:

• EIC has 1 week to assign an editor (or guest editors).
• Editors have 1 week to invite reviewers using ScholarOne Manuscripts.
• Reviewers are given 3 weeks to review the submission.
• Editors are given 2 weeks to submit a recommendation once all or enough of the reviews are in.
• Authors have a maximum of 6 weeks to submit their major revisions. If the author does not submit the revised version, the manuscript is withdrawn and rendered inactive.*
• Authors have a maximum of one month to submit their minor revisions.
• Editors are given 2 weeks to evaluate a minor revision and submit a final recommendation.

*When the manuscript is withdrawn, the magazine administrator will inform the author that he/she can submit the revised version as a new submission. A new log number and a new set of dates will be given to the resubmission, and for historical reference, we will link it to the withdrawn version’s manuscript record.

Submissions to the IEEE Computer Society must represent original material. We discourage submitting to more than one publication concurrently. If it is determined that a submission (a) has already appeared in a publication other than a conference proceedings or (b) appears in or will appear in any other publication before the editorial process is complete, the submission will be automatically rejected.

Submissions are accepted for review with the understanding that the same work has been neither submitted to, nor published in, another journal. Concurrent submission to other publications and this magazine is viewed as a serious breach of ethics and, if detected, will result in immediate rejection of the submission. Submissions previously published in conference proceedings, digests, preprints, or records are eligible for consideration provided that the author informs the magazine administrator at the time of submission and that the submission has undergone substantial revision.

The guidelines for handling concurrent submissions are as follows:

1. If the magazine administrator is informed of a possible concurrent submission, they will immediately contact the Editor handling the submission and the EIC.
2. The EIC of the other magazine/publication is contacted to determine the status of the submission.
3. If the other submission is still undergoing review, both publications exchange submissions for comparison.
4. If the EIC determine a clear case of concurrent submission, the manuscripts are immediately rejected using the appropriate template letter provided in the system.

Preliminary/Conference Version(s)

If the authors provided a previously published conference submission, please take the time, before assigning reviewers, to check the submission to determine whether there has been sufficient new material added to warrant publication.  The IEEE guidelines are that the submission should contain a significant amount of new material, that is, material that has not been published elsewhere.

If the submission does not meet this criterion, or if you find that the manuscript is not suitable for further consideration, then you may choose to administratively reject it. Please make sure to clearly justify or explain your decision. If you make a decision on a submission before sending it out to reviewers, please explain your decision to provide the authors with guidance, in case they decide to revise and resubmit their submission.

EICs can use the IEEE Publishing Operations Production Portal (POPP) for post-acceptance information on their publication. This includes access to page budgets, accepted articles in production, and other information for issue planning. In addition, POPP includes reports on overall citation and timeliness statistics, as well as other analytics and usage information. POPP can:

• Eliminate the need for creating and updating issue spreadsheets,
• Reduce the need for frequent correspondence with your IEEE Production Manager,
• Alert you when deadlines are approaching, and
• Provide you with data about your publication.