Differences between magazine articles and journal submissions relevant to the IEEE Author Portal:
- Content level and style. The objective is an article accessible to any IEEE member, and perhaps to any engineering undergraduate student. That means aspects that are more important for a magazine include:
-Readability
-Clarity
-Interesting to readers
-Tells a story effectively
-Supports the story with images, pictures, and other illustrations
Aspects that are less important or even undesired include:
-Supported with equations, analysis
-Descriptive with lots of validation and experimental tests
-Original research contributions
-Extensive literature and literature reviews
- Abstract, keywords, full bios. These should be separate, solely to support IEEE Xplore posting, and will not be published with the content. The abstract, for example, should not be embedded in the manuscript and tools that “mine” the manuscript for an abstract are not appropriate. We do not print the full author header that would be in place in a journal submission, so again, mining might cause trouble.
- Organizational support. The authors are urged to acknowledge funding and support when required by agencies or funders, but these articles are not intended as research reports, so “research support” is not a relevant concept.
- We need to have appropriate references, since, of course, the articles must not infringe copyrights or risk plagiarism. This is not the same as a lengthy reference list.
- Reviewers will be asked, “Is this article interesting? Is it suitable to share with a wide IEEE audience?”
Articles should be prepared according to the following guidelines:
- Style: Magazine articles should be accessible and interesting. Your article should be clear to an undergraduate engineering student, for example.
- Source file: Submit your article in Microsoft Word format, single column format, single line spacing.
- Abstract: You need to include a 150-250-word abstract to be displayed in IEEE Xplore. Written as one paragraph and should not contain mathematical equations or tabular material. It should include three or four keywords or phrases and be grammatically correct.
- Word Count: Articles are limited to approximately 5000 to 6000 words.
- Illustrations: We encourage 10-12 Figures/Tables/Images. IEEE accepts PS, EPS, PDF, PNG, JPG or TIFF formats for graphics submission. Please note that we need permission to use any images that are not your own.
- Resolution: Minimum 300 dpi. Most graphics are published at one column width (3.5 inches / 89 mm) or two column width (7.16 inches / 182 mm).
- Byline: Provide short author bio(s) at the end of the article – one or two sentences. Emphasis on name and affiliation.
- References: Include a few references at the end, typically 10-15. Please minimize self-references. Any image permissions should be included in captions.
- Peer Review: The article will be peer reviewed by at least two experts before going to print. Any comments/suggestions by the reviewers must be implemented by the authors.
- Copyright form: Before going to production, the author must sign an IEEE copyright form and confirm that we have permission for all content including images.
Upon Acceptance
If your article is accepted for publication, you will be required to submit the following material:
- The source file for the final version of the article in Word or LaTeX format (be sure to include the names of all of the authors)
- The final version of the article in PDF format (the PDF must match the source file)
- You need to include a 150-250 word abstract to be displayed in IEEE Xplore. Written as one paragraph and should not contain mathematical equations or tabular material. It should include three or four keywords or phrases and be grammatically correct.
- A separate source file for each figure in jpg, gif, tif, or eps format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (name each file according to its relationship to the article, e.g., fig1.eps, fig2.tif, etc.)
- The name, mailing address, and phone number of the corresponding author.