Information for Authors

The IEEE Journal on Special Areas in Information Theory  JSAIT is a multi-disciplinary journal of special issues focusing on the intersections of information theory with fields such as machine learning, statistics, genomics, neuroscience, theoretical computer science, and physics. Any field that utilizes the fundamentals of information theory, including concepts such as entropy, compression, coding, mutual information, divergence, capacity, and rate distortion theory is a candidate for a JSAIT special issue. There will also be special issues for topics firmly within information theory, particularly emerging areas. 

What kind of papers are suitable?

All submissions to JSAIT must be in response to a specific Call for Papers and adhere to the deadlines and any specific instructions therein.  Submissions should be made using the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory editorial processing system at Manuscript Central.

Here is a summary of key guidelines for submissions.  Please read these carefully, as any papers not adhering to them will be rejected from the special issue without further review.

  • Papers should be submitted in PDF format, single column, double spaced, 12 point font, 8.5” x 11”, 1 inch margins
  • Submitted and revised papers should be as concise as possible, with a maximum of 35 pages, including references. This corresponds to approximately 15 pages in the final two-column camera-ready format
  • For most special issues supplementary materials (which will not be peer reviewed) will be allowed. The supplemental material might include long proofs, appendices, data sets, and other complementary material. This supplementary material will be available for download in Xplore alongside the paper. Please consult the call for papers and/or direct questions to the guest editors regarding questions on supplemental material. 
  • In final typeset 2 column format, the first twelve pages will be free and after that each page incurs a mandatory charge of $200/page.  Consider this further encouragement to be concise.
  • Abstract should be 75-200 words
  • All authors and their affiliations and email addresses should be included
  • Figures placed in paper close to where they are discussed/cited
  • References should be formatted in proper IEEE style
  • Any closely related papers by the authors should be cited in the paper and/or noted in the Footer, for example a conference version of the paper.
    • Authors are strongly encouraged to detail the novelty and contribution of their submitted papers over published (conference) papers. Sheer number of additional pages over published material is not an evidence (or lack there-) of sufficient novel contributions. 
    • The Lead Guest Editors are best positioned and have full discretion to assess the merits of the submitted material for publication in their special issue.
  • Posting a pre-print of the paper after submission, e.g. at Arxiv.org or the author’s webpage, is encouraged.   Submitting this paper to another journal is not allowed.
  • Typesetting with Latex is encouraged but not strictly required

The following are the policies governing submissions of papers by Senior Editors or Guest Editors.

JSAIT submissions by Senior Editors.  Senior Editors may submit papers without restriction to any special issue on which they are not the overseeing Senior Editor.  In the event they wish to submit a paper to a special issue they are overseeing as the designated Senior Editor, this paper’s review process will be handled by the EIC with possible consultation with the guest editorial team.  They will be limited to at most one such submission as author or co-author.

JSAIT submissions by Guest Editors.  A Guest Editor may submit at most one paper as author or co-author to a special issue they are guest editing.  The review process for this paper will be handled by the overseeing Senior Editor and held to a higher standard of excellence than a normal submission. Invited papers, such as tutorial or survey papers, that are authored by guest editors do not count towards this limit. 

Page Charges and Open Access

Regardless of whether Open Access or traditional publication is preferred, all authors must pay $200/page for each page in excess of 12 pages, according to the final typeset double-column version.  These twelve free pages correspond to roughly 26-30 pages in the above single column submission format, depending on the final formatting of figures and equations, and the length and number of biographies.

Open Access content published in JSAIT is available to all readers free of charge on-line in IEEE Xplore. Currently, authors pay a discounted fee of US $2345 for each paper they wish to publish as Open Access.  This is in addition to the above page charges. For example, a 15 page paper published in Open Access would incur a charge of $600 for the 3 overlength pages plus the $2345 Open Access Fee. Authors may select Open Access  when submitting their manuscripts for review or when submitting their accepted papers for publication. For information about all IEEE open access publishing options, please consult IEEE Open Access.

Final File Submission

Authors of accepted papers should follow the same guidelines as those given for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

ORCID Required

All IEEE journals now 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 (available online through orcid.org) in order to submit a manuscript or review a proof in this journal. Authors can add an ORCID to their ScholarOne account through their profile (linked from their name in the top-right corner when logged into ScholarOne.

Author Names in Native Languages

IEEE supports the publication of author names in their native language alongside the English versions of the names in the author list of an article. Authors must provide the native language name in Unicode characters to be displayed in the byline of the article, in parentheses, after the English version of the name. The manuscript can be prepared using the Insert Symbols list in Microsoft Word or, for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the CJK ASCII Unicode for LaTeX. It is essential that authors carefully check article proofs prior to publication to verify the correct rendering of author names in their native language. More information can be found here.

Copyright

It is the policy of the IEEE to own 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 U.S. Copyright Law, authors are required to sign an IEEE Copyright Form before publication. This form, which can be accessed online, returns to authors and their employers full rights to reuse their material for their own purposes.