1.1. There is no charge for submitting to our journals.
1.2. We use River Valley’s ReView as our manuscript submission and peer review site. Please follow the “Submit your paper” link on each journal’s home page to ensure you submit your paper to the correct manuscript submission and peer review site. Original papers should be submitted as a single PDF or Word file that includes all figures and tables.
1.3. If the paper is intended for a specific special issue, please make this clear when uploading your paper.
1.3.1. Revised papers should be submitted in their source file format (.doc, docx or .tex files for text and .eps, .jpeg, .tif or .pdf files for figures). If your paper has been prepared using LaTeX, please also upload a single .pdf file of the paper together with the LaTeX source file and the figures.
1.4. All papers are pre-screened to ensure that only the most significant are sent for review. Please ensure that your manuscript satisfies the following points:
1.4.1. Originality: is the work scientifically rigorous, accurate and novel? Does the work contain significant additional material to that already published? Has its value been demonstrated?
1.4.2. Please be aware that all submissions to IET publications will now go through Ithenticate’s CrossCheck software which is a multi-publisher initiative to screen published and submitted content for originality. We use CrossCheck to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Click here to find out more about CrossCheck.
1.4.3. Our policy is to reject manuscripts found to contain duplication of previously published work. For further information please see the IET Policy in Relation to Plagiarism, Infringement of Copyright and Infringement of Moral Rights and Submission to Multiple Publications .
1.4.4. Motivation: does the problem considered have a sound motivation? Does the paper clearly demonstrate the scientific interest of the results?
1.4.5. Referencing: has reference been made to the most recent and most appropriate work? Is the present work set in the context of the previous work?
1.4.6. Clarity: is the English clear and well written? Poorly written English may obscure the scientific merit of your paper. Are the ideas expressed clearly and concisely? Are the concepts understandable?
2.1. Your manuscript must not be under consideration for any other publication while it is being considered by the IET. Please read the IET Policy in Relation to Plagiarism, Infringement of Copyright and Infringement of Moral Rights and Submission to Multiple Publications carefully, or contact the relevant editorial assistant if you are in any doubt.
2.2. If your manuscript has been considered and rejected by any other publication, it is imperative that this is stated in the cover letter.
3.1. Cover letters are required for all submissions.
3.2. Cover letters must include a statement of originality and confirmation that this paper has not been submitted to any other journals.
3.3. If your manuscript has previously been submitted to this or any other journal (including other IET journals) and subsequently rejected, you must provide copies of all correspondence involving the earlier submission, including the final decision letter. You must also include an additional document detailing how you have improved your paper from the previous rejected version. Please upload this document alongside both your submitted manuscript file and your cover letter. Failure to do so may cause delays or interruptions to paper processing and will result in the rejection of your manuscript.
3.4. If your manuscript was previously a conference paper, please attach the paper and details of how the manuscript has been expanded.
4.1. Submission template: for our Microsoft Word submission template, please download the file here. For our LaTeX template, please download the zipped file here. These templates contain specific information regarding the formatting, layout and policies for submissions to IET Research Journals. Additional information regarding submissions can also be found in the following subsections.
4.2. Length: original research articles, case studies and brief papers submitted to IET Research Journals should conform to a maximum length of 12 pages when formatted using our double column template provided in section 5.1. Review articles, which summarise current research in a particular area, have a maximum length limit of 18 pages. Comment papers, that critique already published papers, should be no more than 4 pages in length. These guidelines include all content such as the abstract, figures, references and the appendices.
4.3. Format: papers must be typed in a font size no smaller than 10 pt and should be in standardised fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial. All pages should be numbered.
4.4. Language, spelling and grammar: all papers must be written in UK English. If English is not your first language, you should ask an English-speaking colleague to proofread your paper. Papers that fail to meet basic standards of literacy are likely to be unsubmitted by the Editorial Office.
4.5. Author affiliations: these should immediately follow the title. For multiple-authored articles, list the full names of all the authors, followed by the full postal and email addresses, using identifiers to link an author with an address where necessary. If an author's present address is different from the address at which the work was carried out, this should be given as a footnote. All co-authors must be listed on the manuscript submission and peer review site as part of the submission process.
4.6. Abstract: this should be informative and suitable for direct inclusion in abstracting services as a self-contained article. It should not exceed 200 words. It should indicate the general scope and also state the main results obtained, methods used, the value of the work and the conclusions drawn. No figure numbers, table numbers, references or displayed mathematical expressions should be included. The abstract should be included in both the manuscript submission and peer review site submission steps and in the submitted paper.
4.7. Figures and figure captions
4.7.1. Figures will be reproduced exactly as supplied, with no redrawing or relabelling. It is therefore imperative that the supplied figures are of the highest possible quality. The preferred format is encapsulated postscript (.eps) for line figures and .tif for halftone figures with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch).
4.7.2. Each figure should be explicitly referred to in numerical order and should be embedded within the text at the appropriate point.
4.7.3. A maximum of four subfigures will be allowed per figure.
4.7.4. Colour figures may be used online at the request of the author (see Colour Reproduction section below).
4.8. Tables
4.8.1. Tables should be referred to explicitly in the text. Tables should be referred to in numerical order.
4.9. Mathematics and equations
4.9.1. When writing mathematics, avoid confusion between characters that could be mistaken for one another, e.g. the letter 'l' and the figure one.
4.9.2. Equations should be capable of fitting into a two-column print format.
4.9.3. Vectors and matrices should be in bold italic and variables in italic.
4.9.4. If your paper contains superscripts or subscripts, take special care to ensure that the positioning of the characters is unambiguous.
4.9.5. Exponential expressions should be written using superscript notation, i.e. 5x103 not 5E03. A multiplication sign should be used, not a dot.
4.9.6. Refer to equations using round brackets, e.g. (1)
4.10. Footnotes
Please be aware that it is the IET house-style not to include footnotes in the text. If footnotes are included in a paper, they will be moved into the main body of text during the typesetting.
4.11. References
4.11.1. You should number your references sequentially through the text, and each reference should be individually numbered and enclosed in square brackets (e.g. [1]).
4.11.2. Please ensure that all references in the reference list are cited in the text and vice versa. Failure to do so may cause delays in the production of your article.
4.11.3. Please also ensure that you provide as much information as possible to allow the reader to locate the article concerned. This is particularly important for articles appearing in conferences, workshops and books that may not appear in journal databases.
4.11.4. Do not include references for papers that have been submitted and not accepted for publication. Papers that have been accepted for publication are allowed as long as all information is provided.
4.11.5. Please provide all author name(s) and initials, title of the paper, date published, title of the journal or book, volume number, editors (if any), and finally the page range. For books and conferences, the town of publication and publisher (in parentheses) should also be given.
4.11.6. If the number of authors on a reference is greater than 6 please list the first 3 authors followed by et al.
4.11.7. An average research paper should reference between 20 and 30 works, the bulk of which should be recently published (i.e. within the last 5 years) leading-edge articles in the field, preferably from top journals or conferences. You should compare your own findings to this recent research and demonstrate how your work improves on it, in order to demonstrate that your work shows a significant advance over the state of the art - a pre-requisite for publication in IET Research Journals.
4.12. Examples of the ways in which references should be cited are given below:
Journal article
Conference paper
Book, book chapter and manual
Report
Patent
Thesis
Standard
Website
4.13. Appendices and supplementary material
4.13.1. Additional material, e.g. mathematical derivations, that may interrupt the flow of your paper's argument should form a separate Appendix section. Do not, however, use appendices to lengthen your article unnecessarily. If the material can be found in another work, cite this work rather than reproduce it.
IET Open Journals are gold open access journals. This means that the author retains the copyright and the published papers are freely available to everybody who wishes to read and use them. Please check the “About” tab of each journal for up-to-date details of Article Processing Charge (APC) waivers. The standard Article Processing Charge will be $2,000, payable on acceptance of the paper. IET members are eligible for a 15% discount on their fees. The IET also offers fee waivers for researchers in developing countries, determined using the criteria set by Research4Life, which provides free or low-cost access to scientific journals, books and databases for scientists, practitioners, students and faculty in the developing world.
6.1. Colour reproduction is only available online at the request of the author.
6.2. If you would like your paper to appear in colour in the online version, please contact the Editorial Office once you have received your proof for corrections.
6.3. When you supply source files at the submission of a revised paper, please ensure that your figures are appropriate for print in black and white as well as online in colour.
6.4. Colour online is a free service.
7.1. Publishing on acceptance
Once we have received the licence form and your paper is ready to move into production, it will be published on our Digital Library platform as part of our publishing on acceptance service.
The paper that is published at this stage will be an exact copy of the paper submitted for the last round of review. In order to ensure that the published version of the paper is an acceptable standard, you may wish to upload a clean version of your paper without your response to previous reviewer comments. Also, the title and author names will be based on your manuscript submission and peer review site submission questions and accounts; please make sure these are up-to-date before completing the submission of your paper.
Please be aware that changes cannot be made to the published accepted version of your paper at any stage. The accepted version will be replaced on the Digital Library with the typeset e-First version upon completion of production of your article.
7.2. Proof correction
7.2.1. You will receive an email with your typeset proof attached for correction purposes. We ask you to return your corrections within 3 working days of receiving the email. Note that your paper will be published online in advance of printed publication and it is therefore in your interest to return your corrections to us as soon as possible. Major revisions, e.g. rewriting of whole sections, or the addition of figures, are not permitted at this stage. Also, changes with regards to authors or co-authors (additions or removals) cannot be made after the paper has been accepted.
7.2.2. Do not supply an original manuscript, an updated manuscript nor an edited proof at the corrections stage. Corrections should be indicated in list form by giving the precise location of each correction (page and line number). This should be limited to 1 A4 page.
7.2.3. We will send out two chase emails, one to the corresponding author and one to all authors. If we do not receive corrections within this time, due to a tight production schedule, your paper will be published as it stands. No changes or erratum will be made after this.
7.2.4. You will not be able to view the final proof after your corrections have been submitted.
7.3 E-First
The IET have now introduced an e-First publication service for our authors and readers where, once papers are ready for publication, they will appear online on the IET Digital Library (https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals) in advance of print publication.
E-First articles that have not yet been published in a print issue should be cited in this format:
Wu, Y., Liu, W.: 'Title of paper', IET Wirel. Sens. Syst., 2014, doi:10.1049/iet-wss.2013.0065
7.4. Complimentary copies
When all corrections have been made, we will send the corresponding author a PDF copy of their paper. No further changes can be made after this time. Please note that this is subject to the terms and conditions of our author self-archiving policy.