GUIDE TO PROCEDURES FOR PROCESSING TECHNICAL PAPERS

I. OPERATING DEPARTMENT PAPERS REVIEW ORGANIZATION

Each Operating Department is responsible for processing in a timely way an appropriate quantity of adequate-quality papers for publication in the IAS TRANSACTIONS. The responsible official in each department is titled Vice Chairman - Papers. The function of the Operating Department Vice Chairman - Papers is to organize and administer the papers review and handling system within that department. His actions include those steps necessary to complete the following.

  1. Promptly identify all technical papers judged suitable for publication in TRANSACTIONS, or for the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine.
  2. Notify the author(s) and the TRANSACTIONS Editor or the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine of the recommendation to publish and simultaneously inform the author(s) of any additional information needed, and to whom such information should be sent, so that prompt scheduling for printing can be made by the Editor. If appropriate, remind the author that the manuscript is estimated to exceed the requested number of journal pages.
  3. If in the possession of the reviewers, transmit to the appropriate Editor the original, or a clear copy of the original, of the paper, together with the supporting illustrations, abstracts, and author's biographies and photos. However, the author is requested to furnish this information directly to the Editor.
  4. Inform the appropriate Editor of the manuscript's received (and revised) date(s) in addition to complete conference presentation information (correct conference title, location, and date).
  5. Maintain the confidential papers review files until at least six months after the paper has been published in TRANSACTIONS (or in the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine), or until all such approved papers have been considered for the various annual awards for which published TRANSACTIONS papers become eligible, whichever comes last. The file for each such paper is then destroyed.
  6. Establish and maintain a system (in cooperation with his associates of similar title in the other Operating Departments and the Publications Department Chairman) to select the best papers in the IAS TRANSACTIONS for recommendation for various IEEE annual awards.
  7. See that authors whose papers are rejected or returned for revision
    • are appropriately notified,
    • have the original of their paper returned at the request of the author.
  8. Select and assign work areas and supervise the work of Department Technical Committee Papers Reviewers.
  9. Communicate with appropriate officers of Technical Committees to
    • encourage, appraise, and keep them informed of their responsibilities to establish and keep a viable papers review system for their committee in good working order;
    • keep them informed of results of papers review for TRANSACTIONS and the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine from their committees;
    • assure that the Technical Committee Papers Review Chairman has an adequate stock of Technical Paper Review Forms;
    • determine names and addresses of current Technical Committee TRANSACTIONS Papers Review Chairmen.
  10. Assign an Operating Department identification number to each paper being considered for TRANSACTIONS and the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine as it comes to his attention, and keep a record of that paper as it progresses through his review system thereafter. Typical identification by him will include a serial number; for example, IPCSD 96-57, indicating department; year he received the paper or that it came to his attention; and the serial number he gave it during that calendar year. This Operating Department number is subsequently used for easy identification in correspondence, filing, file retrieval, and by the appropriate Editor. Each paper also retains the Technical Committee identifying number assigned it as it went into the review procedure at the Technical Committee level.
  11. Resolve split recommendations by reviewers on whether or not to publish in TRANSACTIONS or in the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine by taking any appropriate action.

 

II. TECHNICAL COMMITTEE PAPERS REVIEW ORGANIZATION

The actual structure and procedure of the papers review organization within each Technical Committee is left up to the discretion of the officers of that committee. Usually each such committee has within it functions equivalent to the following:

  1. a TRANSACTIONS Papers Review Chairman;
  2. two or more Papers Reviewers selected by the Papers Review Chairman.

This Papers Review Chairman is sometimes also the Technical Committee Vice Chairman. In any event the Papers Review Chairman organizes and administers the work of reviewing papers within the Technical Committee for the Transactions and the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine. In general, his job description is very similar to that of the Operating Department Vice Chairman - Papers, except that his function is fitted to the Technical Committee level. Details of recommended review procedures are given in subsequent paragraphs.

 

III. SCHEDULES FOR PAPERS REVIEW AND RESPONSE BY AUTHORS

Suggested time to perform reviews of papers for TRANSACTIONS and for authors to respond is

  1. Technical Committee Review - complete in two to four months;
  2. Operating Department Papers Reviewers' work - one to one and a half months;
  3. Operating Department Vice Chairman review and notification of the author and Editor - one month;
  4. author's transmission of additional information to Editor - six weeks.

 

IV. TECHNICAL PAPERS REVIEW PROCEDURE

1. Use of Form

The IAS Technical Paper Review Form should be attached to each copy of every paper submitted by an IAS Technical Committee for Operating Department Review. The paper should be given a number consisting of the Department/Committee initials, the year in which it is received, and its own identifying serial number assigned in sequence by the Department/Committee Papers Review Chairman or officer responsible for the review of papers. The paper number and the complete data of its receipt should be noted on all copies of the paper and the accompanying review form. Any paper revision dates and the (proposed) conference also should be recorded. The information is especially important if the paper is to be published in TRANSACTIONS.

2. Review Procedure

All papers submitted to the IAS go to the appropriate Technical Committee Chairman or Committee officer designated to handle reviews. The receiving officer attaches a Technical Paper Review Form to each copy and fills out part I of the form. He then reads the paper and records his evaluation on part II of the form. He decides if the paper is worthy of further consideration. Papers of obviously little merit, commercially slanted, or otherwise self-serving should be rejected at this point and returned to the author as unsuitable. Such papers should not be presented at IEEE-sponsored meetings.

If the receiving officer considers the paper suitable for presentation at a technical conference or session sponsored by his committee, he attaches a review form properly identified by title, author, paper number, and his return address to at least two copies of the paper and forwards the copies to members of the committee or other qualified reviewers, requesting that the paper be reviewed and their opinion be recorded by numerical scores on the back of the form. The reviewers are requested to return the paper, suitably scored, within two weeks. However, due to the Conference Presentation First policy of IAS, normally no reviews of papers for TRANSACTIONS will be made until the paper has been accepted for presentation and/or public discussion at a conference session sponsored by IAS, or by an entity of IAS.

3. Criteria for Acceptance by Reviewers

A paper is a good paper if it covers a worthwhile subject and is effectively written. The system used by reviewers is therefore divided into criteria related to the subject matter and standards of effective writing. It should be obvious that the more reader interest, importance, originality, and reference value a paper has, the more it deserves to be published. Similarly, a paper that is clearly written, is concise, sticks to its subject, and does a good job of analyzing and developing the subject is better than one that does not. A paper that brings the reader up to date on what has been previously written is of more value to the reader than one that does not. Finally, a paper that meets all the IAS requirements for writing technical papers as to format, illustrations, and tables is better for the reader and more deserving of being published than a paper that does not meet all of these requirements. Reviewers are asked to judge the paper on each of several criteria. The overall score that the paper receives is the summary of the scores for all of these criteria.

4. Scoring the Review

One of the most important services any member can contribute to IEEE is the careful application of his or her best judgment to the selection of the papers to be presented and published. The primary objective of IEEE is the dissemination of technical information in its field for its members and the public. The success of any technical society is judged by the quality of the papers presented at its meetings and preserved in its publications. Quality must be judged, not alone by the novelty and significance of its subject, but also by the efficiency with which its ideas are conveyed to the reader.

Thus the reviewer of IAS papers is asked to rate papers on two main points: 1) subject matter and 2) writing effectiveness. The subject is divided into four qualities and writing into six. Since the former has fewer qualities than the latter, but is considered to be more important, the subject is given a weight of two. Papers with a low score in writing, but an above average score in subject, may be considered for return to the author for rewriting. If the paper can be revised or rewritten to convey the intrinsic value of the central idea, this should be explained in a statement to the Committee Chairman or Review Officer. The reviewer's name is never revealed to the author or anyone but the responsible Review Officer of the committee. The reviewer's criticism could be very valuable to the author and might save a basically worthwhile paper that would otherwise be lost for want of adequate presentation.

Each quality is scored on a scale of 0 to 10, thus 0-2 = poor; 3-5 = below average or fair; 6-8 = above average or good; 9-10 = excellent or outstanding. Scores for qualities of subject and writing are added, giving points for subject a weight of two. The sum of scores for weighted subject and writing is the total quality evaluation of the paper. A perfect score would consist of 80 points for subject and 50 for writing.

The top 20-30 percent of the papers' total scores should be considered "TC approved" and eligible for an "Operating Department approved" rating and for being published either in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS or in the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine. Papers with very high ratings will be considered for prize awards. Further review and rating of "TC approved" papers will be made to select those papers to be considered for "Operating Department approved."

Conference Technical Papers that meet the stated criteria may be recommended for possible publication in the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine. While the types of papers published in IAS TRANSACTIONS and in the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine differ, it is imperative that proposed papers for both the Magazine and TRANSACTIONS be first-quality paper offerings.

Instructions for scoring the paper being reviewed are given on the second page of the review form, "Technical Paper Review Guidelines for Numerical Scoring," and should be followed carefully by each reviewer to assure maximum fairness to every Author in scoring of papers.

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