TCAS-I Manuscript Submission Guide

Papers submitted to TCAS-I are expected to be typical of 7-11 pages and no more than 14 pages in length in the two-column IEEE TRANSACTIONS format. Since this page limit is to be strictly followed, authors are encouraged to use the IEEE style files here for the preparation of the manuscript. Please note that short papers whose technical content, not including biographies, is typically less than 6 pages should be submitted (after any appropriate reformatting) to the sister journal, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs (TCAS-II).

A. Submission of a Paper:

All papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format:

  1. Go to the IEEE Author Portal

  2. You need to register if you are not already registered in the authors' database. In this case, you will be asked to fill out a form with your name, address, e-mail address, etc. You will also be asked to provide a password.

  3. Follow the paper submission instructions on the web page and submit your manuscript as a single PDF file.

  4. An acknowledgment e-mail will automatically be issued upon successful submission.

B. ORCID:

All IEEE journals require an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) for all authors.  ORCIDs enable accurate attribution and improved discoverability of an author’s published work.  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.
  6. Authors who do not have an ORCID in their ScholarOne user account will be prompted to provide one during submission.

C. Style for Submission of Manuscript:

Manuscripts must follow the standard single-spaced, double-column IEEE TRANSACTIONS format, as specified here. Also see here for style files and templates to guide the typesetting of the manuscript for submission. In addition:

  1. Provide an informative 100-200 word abstract, at the top of the manuscript, and include at least five index terms.

  2. Provide a footnote with affiliations of authors, including e-mail addresses, and acknowledgments of any financial support (see further instructions on disclosure of financial support below).

  3. Embed and properly reference all figures and tables in the manuscript. Where possible, use vector graphics rather than pixel graphics for figures.

  4. If appropriate, provide an “Acknowledgments” section after the conclusion. All personal financial and other interests by the authors must be acknowledged.

  5. Make adequate and up-to-date reference to the literature, including the latest TCAS-I and other IEEE articles where pertinent. All past and “Early Access” IEEE articles are fully searchable and accessible on-line through IEEE Xplore. References should appear in a separate bibliography at the end of the paper, and should be complete in IEEE style with items referred to by numerals in square brackets, e.g., [12].

  6. The maximum permissible length of each manuscript is 14 pages including references and biographies.

  7. The TCAS-IEEE Author Portal provides further instructions about file formats and submission procedures.

D. Relationship to conference and prior publications:

TCAS-I will consider expanded versions of previously published IEEE conference publications, provided the manuscripts contain at least 70% substantive new material. Any figures which are copied from or are similar to previous figures must make explicit reference to the conference publication with a citation in the figure caption. This policy applies to non-IEEE-published conference publications as well, with the additional requirement that the authors must secure all copyright permissions for duplicate figures. If a figure is modified rather than duplicated, the original publication must be cited in the caption as “modified from…”

E. Disclosure of financial support and author and project-related conflicts of interest:

We require the full disclosure of financial support for the project as well as any financial and personal relationships of the author that could even create the appearance of bias in the published work. The following must appear in the acknowledgments section of the paper.

  1. The acknowledgments section of the author footnote (see above) must disclose any agency or individual that provided financial support for the work, regardless of source. Examples include but are not limited to universities, governmental funding agencies, private foundations, and public and private companies.

  2. The “Acknowledgments” section after the conclusion (see above) must disclose any personal or financial or employment relationship between any author and the sources of financial support for the work. These requirements include financial interests of the author in any company that may be licensing, patenting, or using results from the published work at the time of or prior to the date of manuscript acceptance.

  3. The editors reserve the right to ask the authors of a study funded by an agency with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome to include in the acknowledgments a statement regarding the integrity of the work. An example statement is “The authors had full access to all of the data, devices, and materials used in this study and take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis and interpretation of outcomes.”

F. Guidelines for Submission of Graphics:

IEEE accepts PS, EPS, PDF, PNG, or TIF formats for graphics. Most graphics are published at one column width (3.5 inches or 21 picas wide) or two column width (7.16 inches or 43 picas wide). 

IEEE accepts audio multimedia files in AIFF, AU, MIDI, MOV, MP3, RA, and WAV format. Video multimedia files may be in ASF, WMA, AVI, GIF, MPEG, or MOV format. Datasets are typically provided in compressed format in TAR.GZ, TAR.Z, HQX, SIT, or ZIP format.

For more information about creating graphics, please consult here. 

G. Protection of human and animal subjects:

Internationally recognized conventions exist for the protection of human subjects and standards for animal research:

  1. If the published work utilizes human subjects, authors must indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that an appropriate institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

  2. If the published work utilizes animal subjects (including animal sources for in vitro research), authors must indicate whether the institutional and national guides for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. The institutional committees that provide such oversight and/or the published guidelines must be acknowledged.

H. Page Charges:

After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the corresponding author’s institution will be approached with a request to pay a charge of $110 per page to cover part of the cost of publication. If the voluntary page charge is not honored, IEEE will charge a mandatory page charge of $125 per page for each page in excess of 11 pages (including references and biographies). Color photos judged to be essential to demonstrate the results of a paper may be printed in color, but will incur extra cost to the author. Detailed instructions will accompany the paper proof.

I. Copyright:

It is the policy of the IEEE to own the copyright to the technical contributions it publishes. To comply with IEEE copyright policy, authors are required to sign an IEEE Copyright Form before publication. Authors will automatically be redirected to the eCF (electronic Copyright Form) after they have submitted the final files. The eCF makes signing a publishing agreement easy. The form will determine which agreement meets your needs and enable you to complete it on-screen.

J. Electronic Form of Final Manuscript:

For the final printed production of the manuscript, the authors will need to submit source files of the manuscript as explained on the submission web-page. Make sure your files are complete including: abstract, text, references, footnotes, biographies, photos and figure captions. The preferred main formats are TeX or LaTeX. LaTeX style files can be obtained here.

K. Publication Final Materials:

The IEEE Author Center contains tools and information to assist with article preparation and submission, the article proof review process, and ordering reprints. Also included is a list of FAQ’s.

L. Open Access Option:

TCAS-I is a hybrid journal, allowing either Traditional manuscript submission or Open Access manuscript submission. Upon submission, if you choose to have your manuscript be an Open Access article, you commit to pay the OA fees as specified in Section N below (discounts may apply), if your manuscript is accepted for publication in order to enable unrestricted public access. Any other application charges (such as over-length 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.

M. Special Issues:

Special issues of this TRANSACTIONS may be proposed to the Editor-in-Chief by any individual when a new, exciting, and/or timely subject area is identified.

N. Article Processing Charges (APCs):

The Article Processing Charges (APCs) only apply to those manuscripts for which the authors have chosen to publish as open access papers and are as follows:

  • APC for articles submitted in 2024: $2,495
  • APC for articles submitted in 2025: $2,645

The following discounts apply:

  • IEEE Members receive a 5% discount
  • IEEE Society Members receive a 20% discount
  • Discounts cannot be combined
  • Discounts do not apply to undergraduate and graduate students
  • Information about IEEE's Low and Lower-middle Income Country Program is available

Some institutions offer assistance for open access funding. Check our institutional partners list to see if yours is one.