FAQs
1.
How do I obtain an account on Manuscript Central?
Manuscript
Central is the manuscript administration software developed by
ScholarOne Inc. that is used by the Antennas and Propagation Society
to process manuscripts for the Transactions. To obtain an account
on Manuscript Central as an author or reviewer, please go the
Manuscript Central website at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tap-ieee
or contact the Editorial Assistant.
2.
How do I submit a paper to the Transactions?
Please
go to the page with the heading "Information
for Authors" elsewhere on this web site.
3.
How long does it take to get a paper published in the Transactions?
At
the moment, the average time from submission of your manuscript
via Manuscript Central to obtaining a first decision is around
100 days. After that, the time depends on whether your manuscript
requires major or minor changes and, of course, how long you take
to respond. After acceptance of a paper for publication, there
is currently a significant delay to publication because of a backlog
of papers. The Antennas and Propagation Society has recently taken
steps to reduce this backlog by publishing more pages annually.
The typical time to publication after acceptance is currently
about nine months, but this is expected to fall over the next
year or so as the backlog is reduced.
4.
Who is responsible for correcting errors in manuscripts?
At
all times, it is the authors' responsibility to ensure the material
included in a manuscript is accurate, has a minimum of typographical
or grammatical errors and is clearly expressed in English. This
means you should check your manuscript carefully before submitting
for review. If English is not your first language, you may wish
to enlist the help of a colleague conversant with colloquial English
to help with the final draft.
If
a manuscript is considered suitable for the Transactions, but
there are a significant number of typographical or grammatical
errors, the Editorial Board may accept this manuscript subject
to minor changes. For more significant errors, such as errors
of fact, the reviewers will normally point out that an error has
occurred, and some may provide references or even a short justification.
However, it is the authors' responsibility to provide all the
justifications necessary to support the claims in the manuscript.
5.
How should I reply to reviewers' comments?
It
is your work and, therefore, your job as an author to point out
specifically what changes have been made in response to reviewer
comments and to identify where these changes are made in the manuscript.
This information is specifically requested when revised versions
of the same manuscript are expected to be submitted. For a rejected
paper the same principle holds, since it may go back to the same
reviewers. The only exception is likely to be when a manuscript
is so dramatically changed that it is not practical to point out
individual changes. Even then, general guidance should be provided
to the reviewers.
6.
What is a Duplicate Publication?
This
is where an author, or authors, make(s) use of material from another
paper, usually published earlier without substantial change. For
example, when a manuscript is based on an AP-S Symposium paper.
Please refer to a recent editorial in the AP magazine by Ross
Stone (February 2004). As a general rule, a manuscript submitted
to the Transactions should contain substantially new ideas and,
of course, be of archival interest. If your work is based on any
material published previously, including conferences, you should
reference this material.
7.
Is there any rule for the ratio between new and previously published
material?
The
basic requirements for a paper accepted for publication in the
Transactions are that it should describe original work, rigorously,
and coherently.
There
is no fixed rule about the ratio of new to published material,
however here are few guidelines.
(a)
Any previously published material on the topic should be fully
referenced. For example, if you have presented a paper on some
aspect at a conference, please reference that paper.
(b) Significant repeat of text, derivations or figures is discouraged.
Please use the references to refer to this material.
(c) A paper submitted to the Transactions should be a significant
advance on previously published material by other workers.
(d) A paper submitted to the Transactions should describe a different
aspect of a topic than previously published by the authors or
alternatively provide detail to a significantly greater depth
than published hitherto. For example, an earlier conference paper
on a topic might outline what has been achieved with a minimum
of detail. This could be followed up with a Transactions paper
describing how it was done with analysis, design approach, full
measurement details, etc.
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