Aims and scope

The IEEE Transactions on Information Theory publishes papers concerned with the transmission, processing, and utilization of information. While the boundaries of acceptable subject matter are intentionally not sharply delimited, its scope currently includes Shannon theory, coding theory and techniques, data compression, sequences, signal processing, detection and estimation, pattern recognition, learning and inference, communications and communication networks, complexity and cryptography, and quantum information theory and coding. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory papers normally contain a strong conceptual and/or analytical contribution.

What kind of papers are suitable?

The novelty of a paper will usually lie in original results, methods, observations, concepts, or applications, but may also reside in synthesis of, or new insights into, previously reported research. Novelty alone does not assure publication; the significance of a paper and its usefulness to this Transactions’ readership will also be assessed.

The title, abstract, introduction, and summary should be sufficiently informative to make the gist of the paper clear to the broadest possible audience and to place the contributions of the paper in context with related work. The body of the paper should be understandable without undue effort by its intended audience. Submissions that are not written carefully and thoroughly proofread will be returned without review.

Policy on prior publication

Contributions should comprise novel and previously unpublished material; however, prior publication at (or parallel submission to) conferences does not preclude publication in this Transactions, provided this is properly referenced in the paper at the time of submission to the Transactions. Thereafter, submission to other journals is precluded, unless the paper is rejected by this Transactions, or is withdrawn.

If all or part of the paper was previously presented at one or more conferences, a statement such as the following has to be included in the authors' footnote on the first page of the paper at the time of submission:
"This paper was presented [in part] at ... [and ...]."

If authors submit a paper that is a nearly verbatim copy of a prior conference publication, they have to indicate to the editors in a cover letter why they feel that republication is warranted. Editorial decisions will take into account any previous publication of submitted material.

Manuscripts based on papers previously rejected by this Transactions must be accompanied by a cover letter indicating in detail, how the issues that led to rejection of the previous manuscript were addressed. Submission of manuscripts based on papers previously rejected by this Transactions without indicating that the paper or parts thereof had been rejected previously may result in a three-year publication ban from this Transactions.

Appeals

Reject decisions may be appealed by writing to the Editor-in-Chief.

Assignment of papers

The editor in chief assigns submissions to individual Associate Editors taking into account their current editorial load and according to their expertise, which is typically wider than the Editorial Area under their purview.

Preparation of manuscripts

Each paper should include an informative abstract of not more than 200 words. The abstract should be self-contained, be written in the passive voice, and contain no citations. A list of index terms (key words and phrases) should be given after the abstract, a total of five to ten words in length. The terms should be relatively independent and, as a group, should characterize the paper. Authors should be prepared to supply, upon notification of acceptance, originals of figures, biographical sketches, and a signed copyright form (see also the pdf document about manuscript preparation for final submission). In all other respects, papers should be prepared for publication as described in the IEEE Author Kit, which is available from IEEE Periodicals, 455 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855 USA, or trans@ieee.org. This material, including style files for most common word processors, is also available online at http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/authors_journals.html
Please note that a single-column version of your submission is required for reviewing.