Information for Authors

IEEE Author Center

IEEE has constructed a one-stop shop of general author information with valuable data about the entire authoring/publishing environment.  - IEEE Author Center

Scope

IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems (TFS) is published monthly.

TFS will consider high quality papers that deal with the theory, design or applications of fuzzy systems ranging from hardware to software. Authors are encouraged to submit articles that disclose significant technical achievements, exploratory developments, or performance studies of fielded systems based on fuzzy models. Emphasis will be given to engineering applications.

Types of Contributions

• Full papers
• Short papers
• Survey papers
• Letters (Comments on Published Papers)
• Two Part papers

Full papers are characterized by novel contributions of archival nature in developing theories and/or innovative applications of fuzzy sets and systems. The contribution should not be of incremental nature, but must present a well-founded and conclusive treatment of a problem. Well organized survey of literature on topics of current interest may also be considered.Usually a full paper will not exceed 10 pages. An initial submission longer than 12 pages may be returned without review. A revision or the final version can have a maximum of 15 pages (charges apply pages 11-15 of $200 per page).

Short papers report sufficiently interesting new theories and/or developments, results, simulations, experiments on previously published work in fuzzy sets/systems and related areas. For example, an extension of previous results or algorithms, innovative applications of a known approach to interesting problems, interesting theorems on error bounds of fuzzy algorithms, etc. The contribution should be conclusive and useful. Usually a short paper will not exceed 6 pages. An initial submission longer than 7 pages may be returned without review. A revision or the final version can have a maximum of 9 pages (charges apply pages 7-9 of $200 per page).

Survey papers are well-focused manuscripts that puts recent progress into a broader perspective and accurately assesses the limits of existing theories. Usually a survey paper will not exceed 15 pages. An initial submission longer than 18 pages may be returned without review. A revision or the final version can have a maximum of 21 pages (charges apply pages 16-21 of $200 per page). 

Letters will be reserved for just that, i.e., mostly for "Comments on Published Papers" (CoP) and the authors' response, along with occasional letters to, or interesting tidbits for, the TFS readership. A letter must not exceed 3 pages. These are processed in the following manner:

• CoP is reviewed by one of the authors of the paper commented on and at least two independent reviewers.
• If reviewer suggests a clear acceptance or rejection – decision made.
• If the EiC finds the CoP worthy of publication but there is a disagreement between the authors of the paper commented on and other reviewers then the authors of the commented on paper should be given a chance to submit a rebuttal paper (RP).
• The RP will be reviewed by an author of the CoP and two other independent reviewers.
• If review suggests a clear acceptance or rejection – decision made, unless the Editor-in-Chief makes the decision and that is final.
• If both CoP and RP agree, they will be published in the same issue.

 

Authors must decide whether their submission is a FULL or SHORT paper at the time of submission.  Papers cannot be transferred between the categories during the review process.  At the end of the review process if it is recommended that a paper should be a different category, it is the author(s) decision whether to resubmit.

Review management for full and short papers is under the direction of an Associate Editor, who will normally solicit 3/4 reviews before a decision is reached. The articles in this journal are peer reviewed in accordance with the requirements set forth in the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual. Each published article was 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.

Two Part papers consisting of more than one part will only be considered in exceptional circumstances. Multi-part papers will not be allowed simply to get around page-length limitations or over-length page charges.  Any authors wishing to submit a paper in more than one part should request permission (prior to submission) via the editorial office - please email all parts, as separate pdf documents, to hulizhaoze@gmail.com

Over Length Page Charge (New Submissions from 1.1.17)

If a paper has incurred over-length page charges, an invoice will be sent to the author after the paper has been processed, edited and in the queue to be published.

Categories of Contributions

• Regular category (Non-application)
• Application category

Note that the category of a manuscript is an exclusive function of its content, not its length. As described in its scope, TFS considers articles on engineering applications. At the time of submission an author has to specify whether the manuscript should be treated as an application category.

An innovative application must satisfy at least one of the following requirements:

1. A new application that has not previously been explored using fuzzy approaches. The performance of the fuzzy approach should normally be compared with other state-of-the-art approaches.
2. Applications in which the use of fuzzy models produces better results than previously published techniques in the same area, in terms of performance, efficiency (speed / space) or other aspects.
3. Implementation of fuzzy systems and/or algorithms in an application area, in which there is significant novel contribution in the methodological approaches used.

In each of the three cases, the manuscript must have a very clear description of the problem, its formulation, a comprehensive analysis of the results, and adequate details of the implementation protocols (including, ideally, the data used) so that the research may be reproduced by others.

Submission of Manuscripts

Please log on to https://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/tfs-ieee and follow the instructions to create an account (if a first time user) and to submit your manuscript.

Manuscripts should be in our 2 column format. Please see the link below: https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/create-your-ieee-journal-article/

If the manuscript is printable (all fonts embedded), it will be entered into the review process. You will be able to check on the status of your manuscript during the review process.

TFS is primarily devoted to archival reports of work that have not been - in the main - published elsewhere. Specifically, conference records and book chapters that have been published are not acceptable unless and until they have been significantly enhanced. In special circumstances or in exceptional circumstances, the Editor may deem a contribution noteworthy enough to be exempted from this policy. Authors will be asked to confirm that the work being submitted has not been published elsewhere nor is it currently under review by another publication. If either of these conditions is not met or is subsequently violated, the article will be disqualified from possible publication in TFS.

Plagiarism in any form will be considered a serious breach of professional conduct with potentially severe ethical and legal consequences as defined in the IEEE PSPB operational manual, which can downloaded from http://www.ieee.org/documents/opsmanual.pdf. 

Submission of Manuscripts that Extend Previously Published Work

We are happy to receive manuscripts which extend previously published conference work, book chapters or other similar work. There is no fixed percentage of the manuscript that must be different; rather, the Editors and reviewers base their judgement on assessment of the additional novel contribution made in the new manuscript. Hence, both the relationship of the submitted manuscript to the previously published work and the novel contribution of the new manuscript must be made explicitly clear to the reader within the manuscript text (not just in a covering letter).  Authors should also keep in mind the following points:

• The conference paper must be referenced explicitly in the new submission;
• The novel contribution of the submitted manuscript should be made explicitly clear in the abstract and conclusion, and perhaps elsewhere in the main text;
• The amount of text copied directly from the published work should be reduced where appropriate by either changing the presentation, paraphrasing and/or summarising the previous work;
• The previously published paper should be attached as a supplemental file, as PDF.

Artificial intelligence (AI)–Generated Text (chatGPT etc.)

The use of AI–generated text in an article shall be disclosed in the acknowledgements section of any paper submitted to an IEEE Conference or Periodical. The sections of the paper that use AI-generated text shall have a citation to the AI system used to generate the text.

Professional Editing Services

Sometimes TFS receives submissions containing poor English usage and readability. Such manuscripts often get rejected because of extremely poor readability. Authors, at their own cost, may take the help of American Journal Experts for pre-submission professional editing services. An author willing to get assistance with English grammar and usage prior to submitting his/her manuscripts for review or during the review process can go directly to www.aje.com/go/ieee/ to submit a manuscript for copy editing. Various levels of editing services are available. Cost estimates as well as required time are available immediately on line. We cannot guarantee that the linguistic quality of an edited manuscript will meet your expectation. As expected, an edited manuscript will undergo usual reviews.

Abstract Description and Specifications

In order for an abstract to be effective when displayed in IEEE Xplore® as well as through indexing services such as Compendex, INSPEC, Medline, ProQuest, and Web of Science, it must be an accurate, stand-alone reflection of the contents of the article.

The abstract must be a concise yet comprehensive reflection of what is in your article. In particular:

• The abstract must be self-contained, without abbreviations, footnotes, or references. It should be a microcosm of the full article.
• The abstract must be between 150-250 words. Be sure that you adhere to these limits; otherwise, you will need to edit your abstract accordingly.
• The abstract must be written as one paragraph, and should not contain displayed mathematical equations or tabular material.
• The 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.

Graphical Abstract

To aid readers, including reviewers, in understanding the key contributions of a paper, authors are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract along with their manuscript submission. The graphical abstract should (but not limited to) describe the motivation, key ideas and findings, and impact of the research. The graphical abstract is submitted as a supplemental material by uploading it with a supplemental file designation during the manuscript submission process. Like any supplemental material, the graphical abstract will undergo the peer review process.

Page Charges

After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the author's company or institution will be requested to pay a charge of $110 per printed page to cover part of the cost of publication. Page charges for this TRANSACTIONS, like those for journals of other professional societies, are not obligatory nor is their payment a prerequisite for publication.

Copyright

It is the policy of the IEEE to own the copyright of the technical contributions it publishes. IEEE has moved to an all-electronic copyright submission system. Once you have submitted your final files you will be automatically redirected to the IEEE electronic copyright form where you will be able to complete copyright transfer or select an appropriate license agreement. Hard copy copyright forms are no longer acceptable. 

Submission of Final Manuscript

Log in to your author centre and click the ‘awaiting final files’ queue. PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY FILES VIA POST, EMAIL, OR FAX.

Please check that the author supplied data, such as contact and co-author information, is correct and complete.

The following items are required before your paper can be processed for publication. Failure to submit any item will result in delays. Once you make your final submission you will not be able to add to or change files. Please be sure that all files are the FINAL VERSION and that each item on the list below is included:

• A clean PDF of the FINAL manuscript (editing notes or red text is not allowed on the PDF and will cause delays), in IEEE production ready format (single spaced, double column)..This will be used for the Early Access version that is posted to Xplore.

• A SOURCE file that matches the submitted PDF. These files are generally in either Microsoft Word or LaTex. Figures can be embedded in the source file or submitted as separate files. Figures MUST be labeled using numerals and subpart letters: Fig.1, Fig.2, Fig.3a, Fig.4abc, Fig.5abcdef. Do NOT label figures using written topics: "diagonal_unit_square," "x2x2trackhao," "second2." Acceptable figure file types can be found at http://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/Transactions-instructions-only.pdfhttp://www.ieee.org/documents/graphicsfaq.pdf

• Clearly labelled SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL or any other item intended for publication but not included in the main body of the paper, if applicable, ie; appendices, teaser images, multimedia, etc.

• Please make sure that ALL final files have unique file names in order for them to export successfully to IEEE.

IEEE can process most commercial software programs, but not page layout programs. Do not send postscript files. The preferred programs are TeX, LaTeX, and WORD (use standard macros). An IEEE LaTeX style file can be obtained by using the IEEE Template Selector.

Un-authorised Changes

Per 8.2.1.B.14 of the IEEE PSPB Manual under Responsibilities of Authors of Articles Published by IEEE:

“Any substantive and unauthorised changes made to your accepted article during this final stage of the publication process must be communicated in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, who then will decide if a re-review is necessary. This includes addition or removal of any citations. Failure of such notification may be considered as author misconduct, and at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief may be reported as such to the IEEE Vice President – Publication Services and Products”.

Open Access

This 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 $2495 OA fee if your manuscript is accepted for publication in order to enable unrestricted public access. Any other application charges (such as over-length 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.

IEEE Preprint Policy

There are often questions about whether it is OK to post preprints of articles under review to TechRxiv, arXiv or other preprint servers. Bottom line: it is fine to post to TechRxiv or arXiv with certain conditions.

The PSPB Operations Manual contains the policies related to posting of preprints of articles submitted to IEEE publications.

First, here are some definitions (from p. 83):

• An author-submitted article is the version originally submitted by the author to an IEEE publication. An author includes a completed IEEE Copyright Form during submission of the article to an IEEE publication and thereby transfers the copyright of the article to IEEE.
• An accepted article is a version which has been revised by the author to incorporate review suggestions, and which has been accepted by IEEE for publication.
• The final, published version is the reviewed and accepted article, with copy-editing, proofreading and formatting added by IEEE.
• d. E-prints are digital texts of research articles. Electronic preprint is a form of an e-print where an author posts a draft article on the author’s or another web site. For purposes of this definition, a preprint is assumed to be the article in the form prior to submission to the IEEE, at which point copyright is transferred to IEEE. Authors who have submitted articles for publication by the IEEE may be interested in posting various preprint versions of the same article on e-print servers operated by third parties. E-print servers provide authors rapid dissemination of new results, with the opportunity of receiving comments from the peer community and with the opportunity to have a time-stamp associated with the announcement of results.

And now, the relevant policy (from Section 8.1.9, beginning on p. 82):

3. IEEE seeks to maximize the rights of its authors and their employers to post preprint versions of an article on the author’s personal web site, on a server operated by the author’s employer, or on a server operated by an approved not-for-profit third party as specified in 8.1.9.G.2 below.
4. IEEE allows its authors to follow mandates of agencies that fund the author’s research by posting accepted versions of their articles in the agencies’ publicly accessible repositories.
5. IEEE does not restrict the rights of authors to use their IEEE-copyrighted articles in their own teaching, training, or work responsibilities, or those of their institutions or employers. In any preprint version archived by the author after submission, IEEE requires that IEEE will be credited as copyright holder. Upon publication of the work, authors are asked to include the article’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
6. As indicated in Section 8.1.9.A.4 (above) and amplified in Sections 8.1.9.C through G below, IEEE’s policy for permitting posting of IEEE-copyrighted articles extends only to authors, their employers, approved third-party not-for-profit organizations, and IEEE organizational units. The IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office maintains a list of not-for-profit third party servers where material submitted to the IEEE may be posted. [The only approved third-party server is arXiv.]

E-Prints

Before submitting an article to an IEEE publication, authors frequently post preprints of their articles to their own web site, their employer’s site, or to another server that invites constructive comment from colleagues and provides a publication time stamp. Upon submission of an article to IEEE, an author is required to transfer copyright in the article to IEEE, and the author must update any previously posted version of the article with a prominently displayed IEEE copyright notice (as shown in 8.1.9.B). Upon publication of an article by the IEEE, the author must replace any previously posted electronic versions of the article with either (1) the full citation to the IEEE work with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), or (2) the accepted version only with the DOI (not the IEEE-published version). IEEE shall make available to each author the preprint version of the article that the author can post and that includes the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), IEEE’s copyright notice, and a notice indicating the article has been accepted for publication by IEEE.

Single-Anonymous Review

The articles in this journal are peer reviewed in accordance with the requirements set forth in the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual (https://pspb.ieee.org/images/files/files/opsmanual.pdf). Each published article was 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.