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Author Instructions

Aims & Scope

The IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS) is an open access, all-electronic journal that publishes original high-quality manuscripts on advances in the state of the art of telecommunications systems and networks. Submissions reporting new theoretical findings (including novel methods, concepts, and studies) and practical contributions (including experiments and development of prototypes) are welcome. Additionally, survey and tutorial articles are considered. However, it is important to note that lengthy survey and tutorial articles may lead to extended peer review times.

The IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society covers science, technology, applications and standards for information organization, collection and transfer using electronic, optical and wireless channels and networks, including but not limited to: Systems and network architecture, control and management; Protocols, software and middleware; Quality of service, reliability and security; Modulation, detection, coding, and signaling; Switching and routing; Mobile and portable communications; Terminals and other end-user devices; Networks for content distribution and distributed computing; and Communications-based distributed resources control.

Hallmarks of the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS) are a rapid peer review process and open access of all published papers.  The broad scope of the journal comprises, but is not limited to:

Big Data and Machine Learning for Communications
Cloud Computing, Edge Computing, and Internet of Things
Communications and Information Security
Communications Theory and Systems
Green, Cognitive, and Intelligent Communications and Networks
Multimedia Communications
Network and Service Management
Network Science and Economics

Optical Communications and Optical Networks
Resource Management and Multiple Access
Signal Processing for Communications
Underwater Communications and Networks
Wired Communications and Networks
Wireless Communications and Networks

Open Access

This journal is 100% open access, which means that all content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. All articles are published under a CC BY 4.0 license, and the author retains copyright. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, as long as proper attribution is given.

Open access is provided through the payment of an article processing charge (APC) paid after acceptance. APCs are often financed by an author's institution or the funder supporting their research.

The articles in this journal are peer reviewed in accordance with the requirements set forth in the IEEE PSPB Operations Manual (sections 8.2.1.C & 8.2.2.A). Each published article was reviewed by a minimum of two independent reviewers using a single-anonymous peer review process, where the identities of the reviewers are not known to the authors, but the reviewers know the identities of the authors. Articles will be screened for plagiarism before acceptance.

Ethics

All IEEE authors are expected to adhere to IEEE’s publishing ethics, including the definition of authorship, the appropriate citation of sources, the accurate reporting of data, and the publishing of original research. Visit the IEEE Author Center to learn more. All articles submitted for publication should be original and not under consideration elsewhere; if your article is based on a previous publication such as a conference proceeding, cite the original publication and clearly indicate how the articles differ. Contact the Editor-in-Chief with any questions on publishing ethics.

Article Submission

  1. All articles must be submitted via our submission site at https://ieee.atyponrex.com/dashboard?siteName=oj-coms.
  2. Format your article for submission by using the template for IEEE Open Journals, located in the IEEE Author Center.  [Word and LaTeX versions are available.]
  3. Submit your article text in PDF format. Visit the IEEE Author Center for information on writing the abstract, using equations in your article, publishing author names in native languages, and more.
  4. To enhance the appearance of your article on IEEEXplore®, a graphical abstract will be displayed along with traditional text. 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. As an example, the graphical abstract can be a figure or image from the accepted article that can provide a concise, visual summary of the findings. For more information about graphical abstracts and their specifications, please visit the IEEE Author Center website. Please note that when uploading final files, you must submit the graphical abstract again, to be published with your article.
  5. Submit your figures individually in PS, EPS, PDF, PNG, or TIF format. Visit the IEEE Author Center for information on resolution, size requirements, file naming conventions, and more.
  6. For information on submitting supplementary material such as multimedia, or datasets, visit the IEEE Author Center.

The journal has a series of special issues (with CFP listed), aiming at publishing top papers in recently emerging research areas. Paper submissions to special issues will be reviewed immediately upon submissions, not necessarily until the deadline of the special issue. The earlier the authors submit to the special issues, the earlier the authors can get feedback about the paper. If the paper is accepted, it will be published right after acceptance.

Resubmission of Previously Rejected Papers

There are two types of reject in IEEE OJ-COMS: "Reject-Resubmission Allowed" and “Reject”. The “Reject” decision means no resubmission allowed. For the "Reject-Resubmission Allowed" decision, if the authors decide to submit a revised version of the paper, they need to clearly explain the changes made and provide a point-to-point response to the reviewers’ comments.

Authors of manuscripts rejected by any journal other than IEEE OJ-COMS are allowed to resubmit their manuscripts to IEEE OJ-COMS only once. At the time of the submission, the authors need to disclose the connection of the submitted manuscript to a previously rejected paper and state the main differences in the submitted manuscript to deserve re-consideration as a new manuscript. Submissions that fail to disclose this relation will be rejected without review.

Conference vs. Journal Papers

The following is the policy at the IEEE OJ-COMS, which is consistent with the IEEE policy (see IEEE Publications Services and Products Board Operations Manual, Section 8.1.7.E) and the ComSoc Policy, which is to encourage authors to submit papers that are extensions of their conference papers.

  • Conference papers cannot be republished without substantial additional technical material. The meaning of “substantial” is left at the discretion of the Editor. There is no quantitative threshold in determining whether the new technical material is substantial.
  • During the submission process, the conference version (or versions, if the paper is based on multiple conference papers) should be cited in two places when submitting the journal paper: (i) in the Manuscript Central field requesting this information, and (ii) in the journal paper itself.  For conference papers of 8 pages or more, a summary explaining the differences/similarities must be included as a supplementary document in the submission.
  • Text and figures can be exactly copied from the conference paper(s) into the journal paper.  This is not double publishing.  An at least slightly different title should be used for the journal paper, to describe the typically broader contribution of the journal paper and to avoid confusion in the archival record.
  • It is possible to submit the journal and conference version at the same time.  Or the journal version can even be submitted first. However, the journal version should not have appeared on IEEE Xplore (in final form or as Early Access) at the time of submission of a conference version of that paper.
  • It is the responsibility of the Authors to ensure that any copyright commitments they have made outside the IEEE, however, are not violated by the eventual IEEE journal publication.

Overall rationale for this policy:  Authors should be encouraged to present their work to the community at IEEE conferences, which inevitably involves publishing a conference version.  A policy that prevented conference papers from being later published in a journal version would have the opposite effect and discourage researchers from presenting their best work at conferences.  Similarly, it would damage the quality of IEEE journals if innovative ideas are barred from publication in them, simply because they have been presented in a conference format.

ORCID

All IEEE journals 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). You will need a registered ORCID to submit an article or review a proof in this journal. Learn more about ORCID and sign up for an ORCID today.

English Language Editing Services

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 discounts at several language editing services; visit the IEEE Author Center to learn more. Please note these services are fee-based and do not guarantee acceptance.

Share Your Code and Data

Increase the impact of your work by sharing your code and data for others to view, build upon, and reuse.  IEEE works with Code Ocean, a cloud-based computational reproducibility platform, to make your code discoverable. IEEE DataPort, an online data repository of datasets and data analysis tools, makes your datasets discoverable. Visit the IEEE Author Center for more information.

IEEE Author Tools

Preparing your article for submission is easy with IEEE Author Tools.  Tools are available to help you find the right publication for your research, check the quality of your graphics, validate your LaTeX files, and verify your reference list. 

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

2024 Article Processing Charge (APC): US$1995 – effective 1 January 2024

Corresponding authors from low income countries are eligible for waived or reduced APCs.

Discounts:

  • IEEE Members receive a 5% discount.
  • IEEE ComSoc Members receive a 20% discount.

These discounts cannot be combined. Discounts do not apply to undergraduate and graduate students. 

IEEE ComSoc membership will be determined based on the IEEE Author Gateway account of the corresponding author. This journal has no page limits.

Post-Acceptance

If your article is accepted for publication, you will receive emailed instructions regarding your next steps. You may be asked to upload final production-ready files. Shortly after final files are uploaded, you will receive your article proofs for final review, along with instructions on how to review your proofs and submit any corrections. Please note that major changes to your article, including the list of references, are not permitted after the article is accepted for publication. Please contact the Editor-in-Chief, area editor and/or  editor who handled your submission if you have any doubts about whether a modification you wish to make is appropriate.