Information for Authors

The IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems is a bimonthly journal that publishes papers on the organization, design, development, integration, and operation of complex systems for space, air, ocean, or ground environment.  These systems include, but not limited to, navigation, avionics, spacecraft, aerospace power, radar, sonar, telemetry, defense, transportation, automated testing, and command and control.

The boundaries of the acceptable subject matter have been intentionally left flexible so that the Transactions can follow the research activities to better meet the needs of the members of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society. The topics of current interest are best summarized in the titles of the editorial areas published on our website http://ieee-aess.org/publications/transactions-aes.

IEEE Preprint Policy

Types of Contributions
Contributions may be in the form of regular papers or correspondence items. The Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society publishes selected survey papers in a separate tutorials volume. Submission and review of survey papers are managed by the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine editors. To submit a survey paper, visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aesm and select “Tutorials” as the manuscript type.

Regular Papers: Regular papers are to be a well-rounded treatment of a problem area. The title, abstract, and introduction should be sufficiently informative to illuminate the essence of the manuscript to the broadest possible audience and to place the contributions in context with related work. The body of the manuscript should be understandable without undue effort by its intended audience.

Authors must submit Regular Paper manuscripts electronically via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/taes. The "Regular Paper" type must be selected. If there is reference material that is both essential for the reviewing process and unavailable to the reviewers, the authors should provide an electronic copy for the sake of expediting the review process. There is no limit on the number of manuscript pages. But authors should be aware that

  1. Unnecessarily long manuscripts may receive unfavorable reviews.
  2. Publication of an accepted regular paper manuscript must be accompanied by $200 for each printed page beyond 10.

Correspondence: The distinction between regular papers and correspondence is not one of quality, but of nature. Whereas a regular paper is a well-rounded treatment of a problem area, a correspondence item makes one or two points concisely. Consequently, correspondence items should be less discursive, but as lucid, as a regular paper.

Authors must submit Correspondence manuscripts electronically via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/taes. The "Correspondence Item" manuscript type must be selected. If there is reference material that is both essential for the reviewing process and unavailable to the reviewers, the authors should provide an electronic copy for the sake of expediting their review process. There is no limit on the number of manuscript pages. But authors should be aware that

  1. Unnecessarily long manuscripts may receive unfavorable reviews.
  2. Publication of an accepted correspondence manuscript must be accompanied by $200 for each printed page beyond 6. 

Information for all IEEE Authors: General information for IEEE authors (in some cases superseded by specific TAES instructions) is available at the IEEE Author Center.

Author Responsibilities

TAES publishes only original material within the TAES scope. Original means the work has neither appeared elsewhere for publication, nor which is under review for another publication. The absence of originality undermines the effectiveness of TAES and places a burden on the review process. Originality is compromised in a number of ways: plagiarism, failure to cite one's own previously published work, multiple submission, and submission of previously reviewed and rejected manuscripts.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to (a) uncredited copying of someone else's work, (b) using someone else's material without clear delineation or citation, and (c) uncited reuse of an author's previously published work that also involves other authors. The following sanction will be applied for any of the above-noted infractions: (i) immediate rejection of the manuscript in question; (ii) immediate withdrawal of all other submitted manuscripts by any of the authors to any of the Society's publications (journals, conferences, workshops); (iii) prohibition against all of the authors for any new submissions, either individually, in combination with the authors of the plagiarizing manuscript as well as in combination with new coauthors, to ALL of the Society's publications (journals, conferences, workshops). The minimum duration of the prohibition is determined from the level of plagiarism as defined in Section 8.2.4.D of the Publications Services and Products Board Operations Manual. The AESS may impose additional penalties pertaining to submission to AESS publications.

Failure to Cite One's Own Previously Published Work: It is common in technical publishing for material to be presented at various stages of its development. For example, preliminary versions may appear in workshops, more developed versions in conference proceedings, and fully developed material in transactions articles. The AESS fully supports this evolutionary publishing paradigm. If authors have used their own previously published material as a basis for the TAES submission, the authors are required to cite the previous work(s) and very clearly indicate how the new submission differs from the previously published works(s). Failure to do so constitutes an abuse of the evolutionary publishing paradigm. Manuscripts that are found not to be in compliance will be immediately rejected. Authors who are found not to be in compliance are subject to the corrective actions outlined in Section 8.2.4.G.2 of the Publications Services and Products Board Operations Manual. The AESS may impose additional penalties pertaining to submission to AESS publications.

Multiple Submission: Multiple submission is defined as a given article being concurrently under active consideration by two or more publications. Multiple submissions are not allowed by TAES. An article that is discovered to be multiply submitted, at any point in the review process, will be immediately rejected. Authors who are found not to be in compliance are subject to the corrective actions outlined in Section 8.2.4.G.3 of the Publications Services and Products Board Operations Manual. The AESS may impose additional penalties pertaining to submission to AESS publications.

Previously Reviewed and Rejected Manuscripts: If a manuscript was previously reviewed and rejected by any journal, the authors shall disclose this fact at the time of submission (there is a question about this in the online submission form). The authors shall provide to the editors assigned to their submission copies of all correspondence involving the earlier submission. In addition, the authors must discuss the reasons why the manuscript has been re-submitted and be prepared to deliver further material if more is requested. A manuscript that is discovered to be very similar to an undisclosed previously reviewed and rejected manuscript will be immediately rejected. A warning will be sent on the first offense. Additional offenses could result in suspension of publication privileges in AESS publications.

Publishing Ethics--Authorship: Authorship and co-authorship should be based on a substantial intellectual contribution. It is assumed that all authors have had a significant role in the creation of an article that bears their names. Therefore, the list of authors on an article serves multiple purposes; it indicates who is responsible for the work and to whom questions regarding the work should be addressed. Moreover, the credit implied by authorship is often used as a measure of the contributors' productivity when they are evaluated for employment, promotions, grants, and prizes.
In accordance with Section 8.2.1.A.1 of the Publications Services and Products Board Operations Manual, the AESS affirms that authorship credit must be reserved for individuals who have met each of the following conditions:

  1. Made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, system or experimental design, prototype development, and/or the analysis and interpretation of data associated with the work contained in the article;
  2. Contributed to drafting the article or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content; and
  3. Approved the final version of the article as accepted for publication, including references.

By completing the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author is affirming the above conditions for all authors. Violations result in immediate rejection of the manuscript. A warning will be sent on the first offense. Additional offenses could result in suspension of publication privileges in AESS publications.

Submission of Final Manuscript Files: After a paper or correspondence item is recommended for publication, the corresponding author will be contacted by the Editorial Office and given information on what is required for the Final Submission Package and a link for uploading the Final Submission Package. Authors should be careful to ensure that any differences between the accepted manuscript and the version in Final Submission Package be clearly marked and be in accordance with instructions from the accepting associate editor. Any change in title, authorship or references must be made with explicit approval from the Editor-in-Chief, and such approval would be extremely rare.

Discloseability: The IEEE must, of necessity, assume that material submitted for publication is properly available for general dissemination to the audiences the IEEE is organized to serve. It is the responsibility of the author, not the IEEE, to determine whether disclosure of materials requires the prior consent of other parties and if so, obtain it.

Submission Requirements

Manuscript Formats: For Regular Papers and Correspondence items, two formats are required for submission:

  1. A one-column/double-spaced version with 12-point font and 1-inch margins. The format of the headings (including font and numbering) is up to the author. At submission time, what is important is the content.
  2. A two-column/single-spaced version with 10-point font, single line spacing, 1 in (25 mm) top and bottom margins, 0.7 in (18 mm) left and right margins, 3.45 in (88 mm) column width, and 0.2 in (5 mm) spacing between the columns. This version is required to inform the author of an estimate of the over-length page charges (if any).

The manuscript files must be PDF files. 

LaTeX: The LaTeX template for the one-column/double-spaced version of the manuscript is available at https://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/IEEEtran/

Use, as the first line of the LaTeX file

\documentclass[12pt,onecolumn,draftclsnofoot]{IEEEtran}

The LaTeX template for the two-column/single-spaced version of the manuscript is available here or at the IEEE Author Center.

Author Names in Native Languages: 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 IEEE Author Center.

Use of Novel or New: AESS recommends avoiding terms like "new" or "novel" in your article title and abstract. The reader already knows that your research is new since research articles report new findings. Instead, describe your research as concisely as possible in your article title and abstract. Think about the keywords you would use to conduct a search on your article's topic, and be sure to include those keywords in your title and abstract to help readers find your article. 

Review Procedures

Editor Assignments: A Senior Editor is assigned to each submission based on the Technical Area that best matches technical content of the submission. The author specifies the Technical Area at the time of submission. The Editor-in-Chief may, in consultation with Senior Editors, change the Technical Area to better match the technical content of the manuscript. The Senior Editor assigns an Associate Editor to the manuscript. The Associate Editor is responsible for managing the review process. 

Prescreening: Three levels of prescreening are performed for each submission. The first level of prescreening is performed by the Editor-in-Chief and is based on criteria a. – e. in Section 8.2.2.A.3 of the IEEE PSPB Operations Manual. The second level of prescreening is performed by the Senior Editor. The third level of prescreening is performed by the Associate Editor. Questions pertaining to the minimum criterion for technical substance (described above in Types of Contributions) are answered by a panel of editors with the appropriate technical expertise. A manuscript that passes the prescreening process is considered “in review”.

Previously rejected submissions to other journals will be closely scrutinized during the pre-screening process. Such resubmissions may be rejected due to inadequate justification for the resubmission.

Previously rejected submissions to TAES are subjected to a more rigorous prescreening process. The justification for resubmission and the authors’ response to the issues that led to rejection are examined closely. Resubmissions that fail to adequately justify the resubmission will be rejected without review.

Review: Submissions to TAES that pass prescreening are peer-reviewed in accordance with the requirements set forth in the IEEE PSPB Operations Manual (section 8.2.1.C and 8.2.2.A). Each published article is reviewed by a minimum of two independent reviewers using a single-anonymous peer-review process, where the identities of the reviewers are not known to the authors, but the reviewers know the identities of the authors. Articles will be screened for plagiarism before review and before acceptance.

Revisions: For manuscripts that receive a Major Revision or Minor Revision decision, the author is invited to submit a revised version of the manuscript (in both the one-column and two-column formats as described above) together with a separate file, with file designation Response to Reviewers, that details a point-by-point response to all issues raised by the editors and reviewers. 

Editorial Decisions: The Associate Editor recommends to the Editor-in-Chief a decision based on the comments of the anonymous reviewers and his or her own reading of the manuscript. TAES uses four decisions: Reject, Major Revision, Minor Revision, and Accept. A Major Revision usually means significant work is required and that the revised manuscript will be re-reviewed by one or more of the original reviewers. A Minor Revision usually means the revision will be evaluated by the Associate Editor without resending it to the reviewers. The comments of the reviewers are included in the decision letter. The Editor-in-Chief makes the editorial decision based on the Associate Editor recommendation.

Publishing Information

Overlength Page Charges: Overlength page charges are $200 per page for each printed page beyond ten for a regular paper or $200 per page for each printed page beyond six for a correspondence item. Open Access fees do not replace or waive Overlength Page Charges.

The number of printed pages is taken from the final proof created by IEEE productions. The most accurate estimate of the total number of pages for a regular paper is number of pages using the two-column/single-spaced version based on the TAES paper template. The most accurate estimate of the total number of pages for a correspondence item is number of pages using the two-column/single-spaced version based on the TAES correspondence template.

Authors from countries subject to sanctions that prohibit financial transactions with the US must submit manuscripts at all stages that do not incur overlength page charges. This means the two-column/single-spaced version using the TAES paper template must not be longer than 10 pages and the two-column/single-spaced version using the TAES correspondence template must not be longer than 6 pages. Manuscripts accepted for publication cannot be shortened after the final decision.

Video Abstract: Graphical and video abstracts enhance the appearance of your article on IEEE Xplore® by providing a visual summary of the findings of the article by means of a video, audio clip, image, or animation; for example, you may include a short video summarizing the contributions of your article. Further information on the preparation of graphical abstracts and videos is available in the Supplementary Material guide.

Supplementary Materials: Authors can submit supplementary materials including multimedia files, images, data sets, code and accompanying PDF documents. To aid reproducibility, authors are encouraged to submit all files necessary to recreate the results in the paper. The Supplementary Materials should be referenced in the main paper, and a readme file should be included describing the materials. The Supplementary Material is technical content, and authors must provide it for peer review during the article submission process. Further information is available on preparation of multimedia materials and creating readme files for Supplementary Material and data sets in the Supplementary Material guide.

Code Ocean: IEEE has partnered with Code Ocean to make algorithms and data files hosted on Code Ocean accessible through IEEE Xplore.® Code Ocean is an executable platform that allows code to be stored, shared, and run in the cloud. Anyone can run a code posted to Code Ocean, modify it, and test the modifications, without changing the original code. Authors who have published with IEEE in the past five years can upload their code to Code Ocean and it will be automatically linked to the article published in the IEEE Xplore® Digital Library. Further information is available in the IEEE Author Center.

DataPort: Larger data sets (up to 2TB) can be hosted on IEEE DataPort. Data sets receive a DOI which can be cited in the paper. Further information is available in the IEEE Author Center.

Submission of Final Manuscript Files: After a paper or correspondence item is recommended for publication, the corresponding author will be contacted by the Editorial Office and given information on what is required for the Final Submission Package and a link for uploading the Final Submission Package. Authors should be careful to ensure that any differences between the accepted manuscript and the version in Final Submission Package be clearly marked and be in accordance with instructions from the accepting associate editor. Any change in title, authorship or references must be made with explicit approval from the Editor-in-Chief, and such approval would be extremely rare.

Copyright: It is the policy of the IEEE to own the copyright to the technical contributions it publishes. A signed copyright form is required only of accepted manuscripts. Publication will not take place without a completed copyright form. The copyright form is signed electronically. A link to the online electronic copyright form will be sent to the corresponding author of accepted manuscripts.

Open Access: In accordance with IEEE policies regarding open access (OA) content, the AES Transactions has become a "hybrid" journal for submissions dated November 1st, 2012, or later. This means that authors have the choice between the traditional publication model and an OA model. The former is the familiar procedure in which an accepted article is available on IIEEE Xplore to subscribers of that service. Under the OA model, the author of an accepted manuscript chooses to pay a fee, such that the manuscript is posted on IEEE Xplore and available, free, to all. The current OA fee is $ 2,495 per article, and this figure is independent of manuscript type (regular paper or correspondence item). Please also note that over-length page charges will be collected regardless of which model is chosen. For any questions regarding IEEE's Open Access policy, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions.

(Revised December 2022)