Information for Authors-JSTSP

Information for Authors - Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing

(Updated July 2013)

The IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING (J-STSP) solicits special issues on topics that cover the entire scope of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, as outlined in the SPS Constitution, Article II:

"The Signal Processing Society's Field of Interest shall be the theory and application of filtering, coding, transmitting, estimating, detecting, analyzing, recognizing, synthesizing, recording, and reproducing signals by digital or analog devices or techniques. The term 'signal' includes audio, video, speech, image, communication, geophysical, sonar, radar, medical, musical, and other signals."

J-STSP only publishes papers that are submitted in response to a specific Call-for-Papers. These calls are listed on the J-STSP website, and instructions for submitting papers to a particular special issue can be found on the Information for Authors webpage. The procedure for preparing and submitting a proposal for a special issue can be found on the Submitting a Proposal webpage. All special issue proposals are evaluated by our Senior Editorial Board for relevance, timeliness, technical merit, impact, and general interest to the Society.

Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts of "regular papers" within the scope of the special issue to which they are submitting their paper. Short papers/correspondence items will not be considered. Submissions must be previously unpublished and may not be under consideration elsewhere.

Every manuscript must (a) provide a clearly defined statement of the problem being addressed, (b) state why it is important to solve the problem, and (c) give an indication as to how the current solution fits into the history of the problem, including bibliographic references to related work rather than restating established algorithms and scientific principles.

In order to be considered for review, a paper must be within the scope of the special issue and represent a novel contribution. A paper is a candidate for an Immediate Rejection if it is of limited novelty, e.g. a straightforward combination of theories and algorithms that are well established and are repeated on a known scenario, no new experimental data or new application. Experimental contributions will be rejected without review if there is insufficient experimental data. The journal is published in English. Papers that have a large number of typographical and/or grammatical errors will also be rejected without review. By submission/resubmission of your manuscript to the JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, you are acknowledging that you accept the rules established for publication of manuscripts, including agreement to pay all overlength page charges, color charges, and any other charges and fees associated with publication of the manuscript. Such charges are not negotiable and cannot be suspended.

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

Manuscript Submission. Please follow the next steps.

1. Account in ScholarOne Manuscripts. If necessary, create an account in the on-line submission system ScholarOne Manuscripts. 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.
2. Electronic Manuscript. Prepare a PDF file containing your manuscript in double-column, single-spaced format using a font size of 10 points or larger, having a margin of at least 1 inch on all sides. For a regular paper, the manuscript may not exceed 13 double-column pages, including title; names of authors and their complete contact information; abstract; text; all images, figures and tables, appendices and proofs; and all references. Upload this version of the manuscript as a PDF file "double.pdf" to the ScholarOneManuscripts site. You are encouraged to also submit a single-column, double-spaced version (11 point font or larger), but page length restrictions will be determined by the double-column version.

   For regular papers, the revised manuscript may not exceed 16 double-column pages (10 point font), including title; names of authors and their complete contact information; abstract; text; all images, figures and tables, appendices and proofs; and all references.

   Proofread your submission, confirming that all figures and equations are visible in your document before you "SUBMIT" your manuscript. Proofreading is critical; once you submit your manuscript, the manuscript cannot be changed in any way. You may also submit your manuscript as a PostScript or MS Word file. The system has the capability of converting your files to PDF, however it is your responsibility to confirm that the conversion is correct and there are no font or graphics issues prior to completing the submission process.

3. Additional Documents for Review. Please upload pdf versions of all items in the reference list which are not publicly available, such as unpublished (submitted) papers. Other materials for review such as supplementary tables and figures may be uploaded as well. Reviewers will be able to view these files only if they have the appropriate software on their computers. 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.
4. Multimedia Materials. IEEE Xplore can publish multimedia files (audio, images, video) and 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 Tools. To make your work reproducible by others, the journal encourages you to submit all files that can recreate the figures in your paper. Files that are to be included with the final paper must be uploaded for consideration in the review process.
5. 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.
6. Copyright Form 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" prior to publication by the IEEE.

   The IEEE recommends authors to use an effective electronic copyright form (eCF) tool within the ScholarOne Manuscripts system. You will be redirected to the "IEEE Electronic Copyright Form" wizard at the end of your original submission; please simply sign the eCF by typing your name at the proper location and click on the "Submit" button.

Manuscript Length. Papers published on or after 1 April 2013 can now be up to 10 pages, and any paper in excess of 10 pages will be subject to over length page charges. The IEEE Signal Processing Society has determined that the standard manuscript length shall be no more than 10 published pages (double-column format, 10 point type) for a regular submission. Manuscripts that exceed these limits will incur mandatory over length page charges, as discussed below. Since changes recommended as a result of peer review may require additions to the manuscript, it is strongly recommended that you practice economy in preparing original submissions.

Exceptions to manuscript length requirements may, under extraordinary circumstances, be granted by the Editor-in-Chief. However, such exception does not obviate your requirement to pay any and all over length or additional charges that attach to the manuscript.

Full details of the resubmission process can be found in the Signal Processing Society "Policy and Procedures Manual".

Author Misconduct

Author Misconduct Policy: 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. Plagiarism is unacceptable.

Self-plagiarism involves the verbatim copying or reuse of an author’s own prior work without appropriate citation; it is also unacceptable. Self-plagiarism includes duplicate submission of a single journal manuscript to two different journals, and submission of two different journal manuscripts which overlap substantially in language or technical contribution.

Authors may only submit original work that has not appeared elsewhere in a journal publication, nor is under review for another journal publication. Limited overlap with prior journal publications with a common author is allowed only if it is necessary for the readability of the paper. If authors have used their own previously published work as a basis for a new submission, they are required to cite the previous work and very briefly indicate how the new submission offers substantively novel contributions beyond those of the previously published 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 related prior work; the papers cannot be identical; and the journal publication must include novel aspects.

Author Misconduct Procedures: The procedures that will be used by the Signal Processing Society in the investigation of author misconduct allegations are described in the IEEE SPS Policies and Procedures Manual.

Author Misconduct Sanctions: The IEEE Signal Processing Society will apply the following sanctions in any case of plagiarism, or in cases of self-plagiarism that involve an overlap of more than 25% with another journal manuscript:

1. immediate rejection of the manuscript in question;
2. immediate withdrawal of all other submitted manuscripts by any of the authors, submitted to any of the Society’s publications (journals, conferences, workshops), except for manuscripts that also involve innocent co-authors; immediate withdrawal of all other submitted manuscripts by any of the authors, submitted to any of the Society’s publications (journals, conferences, workshops), except for manuscripts that also involve innocent co-authors;
3. prohibition against each of the authors for any new submissions, either individually, in combination with the authors of the plagiarizing manuscript, or in combination with new co-authors, to all of the Society's publications (journals, conferences, workshops). The prohibition shall continue for one year from notice of suspension.

Further, plagiarism and self-plagiarism may also be actionable by the IEEE under the rules of Member Conduct.

Submission Format

Authors are encouraged to prepare manuscripts employing the on-line style files developed by IEEE. All manuscripts accepted for publication will require the authors to make final submission employing these style files. The style files are available on the web at the IEEE Author Tools under "Template for all Transactions." (LaTeX and MS Word).

Authors using LaTeX: the two PDF versions of the manuscript needed for submission can both be produced by the IEEEtran.cls style file. Adouble-spaced document is generated by including \documentclass[11pt,draftcls,onecolumn] (IEEEtran) as the first line of the manuscript source file, and a single-spaced double-column document for estimating the publication page charges via \documentclass[10pt,twocolumn,twoside] (IEEEtran) for a regular submission.

Illustrations in color may be used but, unless the final publishing will be in color, the author is responsible that the corresponding grayscale figure is understandable.

In preparing your illustrations, note that in the printing process, most illustrations are reduced to single-column width to conserve space. This may result in as much as a 4:1 reduction from the original. Therefore, make sure that all words are in a type size that will reduce to a minimum of 9 points or 3/16 inch high in the printed version. Only the major grid lines on graphs should be indicated.

• Title page and abstract: The first page of the manuscript shall contain the title, names and contact information for all authors (full mailing address, institutional affiliations, phone, fax, and e-mail), the abstract. An asterisk * should be placed next to the name of the Corresponding Author who will serve as the main point of contact for the manuscript during the review and publication processes.
   

  The abstract is what users and researches will read when deciding whether your article pertains to their interests and needs. For this reason, your abstract is an extremely important and powerful representation of your article. As an author, you should spend time ensuring that it is readable and that it contains a complete description of your research.

  In approximately 150-250 words, you will need to summarize your findings, and describe the implications of those findings.

  The abstract must be an accurate reflection of what is in your article as follows.

  • Your abstract must be self-contained, without abbreviations, footnotes, or references. It should be a microcosm of the full article.
  • Your abstract must be written as one paragraph, and should not contain displayed mathematical equations or tabular material.
  • Your abstract should include three or four different keywords or phrases, as this will help readers to find it. (It is important to avoid over-repetition of such phrases as this can result in a page being rejected by search engines.)
  • Ensure that your abstract reads well and is grammatically correct.
  • Visit the journal’s "Information for Authors" page to review its abstract’s specifications and description. Be sure that you adhere to its guidelines and limitations; otherwise, it is likely that you will be asked to edit your abstract accordingly.

  When submitting an abstract for your original research, it is important to state the primary objective and offer any tested hypotheses. Describe your research design and methodology and accurately state the following: the methods and procedures you employed, the main outcomes and results, and the conclusions that might be drawn from these data and results. Include any implications for further research or application/practice.

• Illustrations and tables: Each figure and table should have a caption that is intelligible without requiring reference to the text. Illustrations/tables may be worked into the text of a newly-submitted manuscript, or placed at the end of the manuscript. (However, for the final submission, illustrations/ tables must be submitted separately and not interwoven with the text.)
• Abbreviations: J-STSP follows the practices of the IEEE on units and abbreviations, as outlined in the Institute’s published standards. See IEEE Information for Authors for details.
• Mathematics: All mathematical expressions must be legible. Do not give derivations that are easily found in the literature; merely cite the reference.

Final Manuscript Submission Guidelines

Upon formal acceptance of a manuscript for publication, instructions for providing the final materials required for publication will be sent to the Corresponding Author. Finalized manuscripts should be prepared in LaTeX or MS Word, and are required to use the style files established by IEEE, available at IEEE Author Tools.

Instructions for preparing files for electronic submission are as follows:

• For regular papers, the final manuscript may not exceed 16 double-column pages (10 point font), including title; names of authors and their complete contact information; abstract; text; all images, figures and tables, appendices and proofs; and all references. Without expressed approval from the Editor-in-Chief, papers that exceed 16 pages in length will not publish.
• Files must be self-contained; that is, there can be no pointers to your system setup.
• Include a header to identify the name of the journal, the name of the author, and the software used to format the manuscript.
• Do not import graphics files into the text file of your finalized manuscript (although this is acceptable for your initial submission). If submitting on disk, use a separate disk for graphics files.
• Do not create special macros.
• Do not send PostScript files of the text.
• File names should be lower case.
• Graphics files should be separate from the text, and not contain the caption text, but include callouts like "(a)", "(b)".
• Graphics file names should be lower case and named fig1.eps, fig2.tif, etc.
• Supported graphics types are EPS, PS, TIFF, or graphics created usingWord, Powerpoint, Excel or PDF. Not acceptable is GIF, JPEG,WMF, PNG,BMP or any other format (JPEG is accepted for author photographs only). The provided resolution needs to be at least 600 dpi (400 dpi for color).
• Please indicate explicitly if certain illustrations should be printed in color; note that this will be at the expense of the author. Without other indications, color graphics will appear in color in the online version, but will be converted to grayscale in the print version.

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, please visit the "Publishing author names in native languages" page on the IEEE Author Tools. 

Additional instructions for preparing, verifying the quality, and submitting graphics and multimedia files are available via IEEE Author Tools.

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 $1,750 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.

Page Charges.

Voluntary Page Charges. Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the author(s) or his/her/their company or institution will be asked to pay a charge of $110 per page to cover part of the cost of publication of the first ten pages that comprise the standard length.

Mandatory Page Charges. The author(s) or his/her/their company or institution will be billed $220 per each page in excess of the first ten published pages for regular papers. These are mandatory page charges and the author(s) will be held responsible for them. They are not negotiable or voluntary. The author(s) signifies his willingness to pay these charges simply by submitting his/her/their manuscript to the journal. The Publisher holds the right to withhold publication under any circumstance, as well as publication of the current or future submissions of authors who have outstanding mandatory page charge debt. No overlength page charges will be applied to overview papers in the Society’s journals.

Color Charges. Color figures which appear in color only in the electronic (Xplore) version can be used free of charge. In this case, the figure will be printed in the hardcopy version in grayscale, and the author is responsible that the corresponding grayscale figure is intelligible. Color reproduction in print is expensive, and all charges for color are the responsibility of the author. The estimated costs are as follows. There will be a charge of $62.50 for each figure; this charge may be subject to change without notification. In addition, there are printing preparation charges which may be estimated as follows: color reproductions on four or fewer pages of the manuscript: a total of approximately $1045; color reproductions on five pages through eight pages: a total of approximately $2090; color reproductions on nine through 12 pages: a total of approximately $3135, and so on. Payment of fees on color reproduction is not negotiable or voluntary, and the author’s agreement to publish the manuscript in the journal is considered acceptance of this requirement.