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Special issues cover a key topic of interest to electrical engineers and computer scientists and serve as a guide to the state of the art in the particular area. They typically include 10-15 papers. 

Special Sections explore important topics that may not yet require a full issue’s coverage. They typically include 3-5 papers. 

Prospective Guest Editors are required to submit a detailed proposal for our Editorial Board’s consideration. Please use the special issue proposal template (Word, 19KB) to prepare your proposal and the special section proposal template (Word, 24KB) to prepare your special section proposal. 

Completed proposals can be sent to the Proceedings of the IEEE Editorial Office, or directly to the Managing Editor.

The Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor will preview the proposals and potentially suggest initial improvements to ensure that the proposals meet the required expectations. Proposals will be submitted to the Proceedings Editorial Board for review. The Editorial Board takes three to four weeks to review the proposals. The Editor-in-Chief then makes the final decisions.

Points to Remember

  • Guest Editors are encouraged to enlist the help of co-Guest Editors to distribute the workload. Co-Guest Editors should be leading experts in the area, preferably from geographically diverse locations. For special sections there should be no more than 2 guest editors in total.
  • Proceedings of the IEEE Special Issues/Sections should reflect the state of the art in the particular areas and should include contributions from leading experts around the world. Depending on the topic, industry representation can be important.
  • Papers should be reviews, tutorials, or surveys written for specialists within the core research area as well as non-specialists who are interested in learning about the state-of-the-art in this field. They should remain citable by the core research groups while remaining accessible to a broad audience.
  • Papers must offer new perspectives and insights and should be applications-oriented.
  • Individual papers undergo a rigorous peer-review process via our peer review system (ScholarOne Manuscripts) after the proposal is accepted and must meet the quality criteria for the journal before publication. The Editor-in-Chief maintains the highest authority of the publication on all editorial matters.