Editorial Policies
IEEE-TAS is an archival, peer-reviewed publication that must meet the publication standards set by the IEEE. Manuscripts submitted for publication in the ASC 2012 special issue must meet the following criteria to be considered suitable for entering the peer-review process:
1. Manuscripts must present a scientific discussion.
a. An introduction shall explain the context and background for the work, making suitable references to work by others.
b. Original experimental design, methods, materials, theory, development, or other such material shall be presented. The approach shall follow a scientific method, and the method should produce results. Data, figures, tables, and other findings should be included to describe the results in ways that are easy for the reader to understand. The paper should explain what is different from the experimental design, methods, etc. used in comparison to those used by others in the field, with appropriate references.
c. A discussion of the implications of the work for the field shall be included. The discussion may draw conclusions, raise questions, or define the state of the experiment if incomplete. The discussion should be relevant to the data, results, figures, tables, etc. provided, and should follow a logical process. Conclusions are a very helpful summary for the reader; however there are occasions when a formal conclusions section might not be warranted. The discussion and any conclusions should be compared to discussion points raised and conclusions reached by other workers in the field, with appropriate references.
2. Manuscripts must provide suitable references. A typical paper has 10 or more references. ASC authors may always extend paper length to an extra page (or more) free of charge to provide space for references. Self-citation is rarely sufficient, and papers with only citations to other work by the primary authors will come under close scrutiny and may not pass the suitability check. Moreover, omission of references to the experimental approach, results, discussion points, or conclusions made by others will likely be strongly questioned by referees. Citations to other ASC 2012 papers submitted for publication must use the text IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 23 (submitted for publication).
3. Manuscripts must be written in suitable English language. While occasional grammar errors clearly do not affect the ability of a reader to gain knowledge from a manuscript, or the ability of a referee to judge the technical content of a manuscript, systematic errors and poor writing confuse the message being conveyed. Manuscripts judged to not convey a clear meaning due to poor writing will not pass the suitability check. Assistance for writing, in particular for those authors who do not regularly write in the English language, is available for a very modest fee, about $8.00 per 250-word page, from IEEE’s Professional Writing Services, http://www.prof-editing.com/ieee/index.php.
4. Manuscripts must use the IEEE Transactions style and format. The large volume of manuscripts submitted to the ASC 2012 Special Issue requires streamlining of the article production. This is automatically facilitated by following the IEEE Style Guidelines and using the article #TEMPLATES. Manuscripts that require significant re-formatting may not pass the suitability check.
The ability to combine papers provides authors from large research teams with the opportunity to build a more detailed and comprehensive story than might be possible in 4+1 pages. Also, authors from institutions where several results are shared can avoid re-use of content, and possible rejection of their papers, by combining them into one original work. Combined papers should obey the following policy:
1. Intention to combine papers must be requested by e‐mail by 31 August 2012. Contact the EIC, Lance Cooley, at ldcooley@fnal.gov or the Editorial Support Staff at asc@centennialconferences.com.
2. The request shall state:
a. which program ID numbers are being combined;
b. which ID number will be the one that the combined manuscript will be submitted under (default will be the earliest in the program sequence); and
c. which author will be the corresponding author (default will be the corresponding author of the ID number in item (b) above).
3. Authors shall be granted a page limit that scales with the number of papers being combined, including optional pages for references. That is, two papers may be combined into a single 8‐page paper with optional 2 pages for references (8+2), three papers into 12+3, etc. Extra page fees will apply as usual beyond the page limit.
4. The combined paper shall require one valid registration code for each paper being combined, i.e. 3 paid registrations for (12+3). These codes shall be communicated to the Managing Editor at the time of manuscript submission.
5. Paper upload into ScholarOne will use the ID number and corresponding author account identified in item (2), and one of the registration codes in item (4). The upload process should be no different than that for a regular manuscript.
6. All presentations represented by the program ID numbers being combined must be given at the conference. The EIC reserves the right to invalidate any combined manuscript for which presentations were not given.
7. Other editorial policies will apply to the combined manuscript in the same way as regular manuscripts.
8. Special editors have been arranged for processing of combined manuscripts.
IEEE-TAS publishes original articles on applied superconductivity. Authors should take note of the IEEE policies on rights and permissions, especially for re-use of material. For additional information, please visit: http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html. Plagiarism and re-use of material under copyright are serious issues that can result in an author or an institution being banned from publishing in IEEE journals. Ithenticate and CrossCheck may be used to assess the amount of content in common with other published work to alert editors to the possibility of improper re-use of material. IEEE can assist authors in obtaining permission for re-use of published material.
Submission of manuscripts to two or more publications is generally not acceptable. If circumstances are extraordinary and multiple submission does occur, this must be accompanied by a communication to the editor explaining that the manuscript is also under review by another publication and the rationale for multiple submission. Re-use of the authors’ own published material without proper citation is also generally not acceptable. While IEEE-TAS recognizes the evolutionary process in the development of ideas into mature work for publication, the previous stages of this process must be properly cited.
For the special issue, re-use of content between papers from ASC 2012 is not acceptable. Authors should refer to instructions for combined papers or consult with their editor if it is necessary to re-use material.