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New and revised manuscripts should be prepared following the "Manuscript Submission" guidelines below and submitted to the online manuscript system, ScholarOne Manuscripts. Do not send original submissions or revisions directly to the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editors; they will access your manuscript electronically via the Manuscript Central system.

  • Account in ScholarOne Manuscripts.
    If necessary, create an account in the on-line submission system ScholarOne Manuscripts at Manuscript Central. Please check first if you already have an existing account which is based on your e-mail address and may have been created for you when you reviewed or authored a previous paper.
  • Electronic Manuscript.
    Papers should be concisely written and be submitted in a double-column single-spaced format and cannot be longer than 30 pages including text, tables, and figures. Authors are required to upload the single-spaced double-column version of the manuscript as a PDF. Please include a 75- to 200-word concise yet comprehensive abstract which includes a few keywords or phrases that will help readers to find it.

Authors are required to prepare manuscripts employing the on-line style files developed by IEEE, which include guidelines for abbreviations, mathematics, and graphics. All manuscripts accepted for publication will require the authors to make final submission employing these style files. Authors can download a LaTeX template for their submission.

Proofread your submission, confirming that all figures and equations are visible in your uploaded document and that there are no font or graphics issues before you "SUBMIT" your manuscript. Once you submit your manuscript, the manuscript cannot be changed in any way.

IEEE supports the publication of author names in the native language alongside the English versions of the names in the author list of an article. For more information, see "Author names in native languages" on the IEEE Author Center website.

  • Additional Documents for Review.
    Please upload pdf versions of all items in the reference list that are not publicly available, such as unpublished (submitted) papers. Graphical abstracts and supplemental materials intended to appear with the final paper (see below) must also be uploaded for review at the time of the initial submission for consideration in the review process. Use short filenames without spaces or special characters. When the upload of each file is completed, you will be asked to provide a description of that file.
  • Supplemental Materials.
    IEEE Xplore can publish multimedia files (audio, images, video), datasets, and software (e.g. Matlab code) along with your paper. Alternatively, you can provide the links to such files in a README file that appears on Xplore along with your paper. For details, please see IEEE Author Digital Toolbox under "Multimedia." To make your work reproducible by others, the TRANSACTIONS encourages you to submit all files that can recreate the figures in your paper.
  • Submission.
    After uploading all files and proofreading them, submit your manuscript by clicking "Submit." A confirmation of the successful submission will open on-screen containing the manuscript tracking number and will be followed with an e-mail confirmation to the corresponding and all contributing authors. Once you click "Submit," your manuscript cannot be changed in any way.

IEEE Copyright and Consent Form

By policy, IEEE owns the copyright to the technical contributions it publishes on behalf of the interests of the IEEE, its authors, and their employers; and to facilitate the appropriate reuse of this material by others. To comply with the IEEE copyright policies, authors are required to sign and submit a completed "IEEE Copyright and Consent Form" after being accepted for publication by the IEEE. You will be asked to submit the "IEEE Electronic Copyright Form" while you’re uploading all final files. The IEEE recommends authors to use an effective electronic copyright form (eCF) tool within the ScholarOne Manuscripts system; please simply sign the eCF by typing your name at the proper location and click on the "Submit" button. 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.

Informed Consent Policy

For all research involving human subjects, freely-given, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. In the case of animal are used in testing, then all ethical procedures and clearance are expected to be complied.

Resubmission of Previously Rejected Manuscripts

Authors of manuscripts rejected from any journal are allowed to resubmit their manuscripts only once. At the time of submission, you will be asked whether your manuscript is a new submission or a resubmission of an earlier rejected manuscript. If it is a resubmission of a manuscript previously rejected by any journal, you are expected to submit supporting documents identifying the previous submission and detailing how your new version addresses all of the reviewers’ comments. Papers that do not disclose connection to a previously rejected paper or that do not provide documentation as to changes made may be immediately rejected.

Author Misconduct

Author misconduct includes plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and research misconduct, including falsification or misrepresentation of results. All forms of misconduct are unacceptable and may result in sanctions and/or other corrective actions. Plagiarism includes copying someone else’s work without appropriate credit, using someone else’s work without clear delineation of citation, and the uncited reuse of an author’s previously published work that also involves other authors. Self-plagiarism involves the verbatim copying or reuse of an author’s own prior work without appropriate citation, including duplicate submission of a manuscript elsewhere (journal or conference), and submission of two different manuscripts which overlap substantially in language or technical contribution. 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).

Extensions of the Author’s Prior Work

It is acceptable for conference papers to be used as the basis for a more fully developed journal submission. Still, authors are required to cite their related prior work; the papers cannot be identical; and the journal publication must include substantively novel aspects such as new experimental results and analysis or added theoretical work. The journal publication should clearly specify how the journal paper offers novel contributions when citing the prior work. Limited overlap with prior journal publications with a common author is allowed only if it is necessary for the readability of the paper, and the prior work must be cited as the primary source.

Open Access

The publication is a hybrid journal, allowing either Traditional manuscript submission or Open Access (author-pays OA) manuscript submission. Upon submission, if you choose to have your manuscript be an Open Access article, you commit to pay the discounted $2195 OA fee if your manuscript is accepted for publication in order to enable unrestricted public access. Any other application charges (such as overlength page charge and/or charge for the use of color in the print format) will be billed separately once the manuscript formatting is complete but prior to the publication. If you would like your manuscript to be a Traditional submission, your article will be available to qualified subscribers and purchasers via IEEE Xplore. No OA payment is required for Traditional submission. More information about IEEE open access policy may be found at the IEEE Author Center website.

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

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:

1. Login to ScholarOne and click on your name in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Click E-mail / Name in the dropdown menu.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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

Guidelines for Author Supplied Electronic Text and Graphics

Information About the DataPort Trial

IEEE DataPort is a new IEEE data repository that is now available to all IEEE members, IEEE authors, IEEE societies, and the global technical community. IEEE DataPort adds value for all those in the global research community that have data storage needs, require access to datasets, and/or desire to initiate or participate in Data Challenges and Competitions.

The IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications is taking part in Phase 1 of the trial which enables our authors to have direct access to IEEE DataPort and the opportunity to store data as part of the article submission process. For more information, please see more information at the IEEE DataPort website or contact Melissa Handa.