Prepublication Policy

The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) publishes the latest advances in the field of integrated circuits (ICs). As the premier world forum for technical innovation in solid-state circuits, SSCS requires that most material published in our journals and at sponsored conferences has not been made available to the public previously (i.e, pre-published).

Publications always include a mix of pre-published material (e.g., motivation, background information, summary of prior work in the field) and technical information and data that have not been disclosed before. It is the responsibility of our journal editors, or conference technical program chairs, to ensure that each published work contains significant new material and that new material constitutes the majority of the work.

Though the final decision about pre-published material lies with the editor or technical program chair, the following guidelines should assist authors to comply with IEEE policy.

Prepublication includes:

1) Publicly available manuals, datasheets and applications notes that contain substantial technical information such as schematics and principles of operation.
2) Previously copyrighted material.
3) Material submitted and accepted for publication elsewhere.
4) Material for which a publication decision is still pending.
5) Material available on a public website or orderable in printed form is normally considered pre-published, and does not qualify as new material. (e.g., presentations done internal to an organization and disclosed on a publicly accessible web site).

Disclose all questionable material to the journal editor or conference technical program committee as part of the submission process. If your organization is planning publicity for your work which you believe might be interpreted as a violation of prepublication policy, contact the technical program chairman (or editor for publications) prior to the publicity event for approval. Providing preprints, granting interviews, discussing data with members of the media, or participating in press conferences in advance of publication without prior approval from the appropriate editor or technical program chair may be grounds for rejection.

Prepublication does not include:

1) Electronic copies of articles posted by authors on publicly accessible websites or preprint servers such as arXiv.org. IEEE policy regarding sharing and posting of articles is described in the IEEE Author Center:

http://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/publish-with-ieee/author-education-resources/guidelines-and-policies/policy-posting-your-article/

Authors publishing on preprint servers such as arXiv are required to post the IEEE copyright notice on the preprint after the manuscript has been accepted for publication by IEEE. Details on post-publication procedures for article posted to servers prior to publication are also described in the IEEE Author Center (via the above link).

2) Preliminary datasheets or a product announcement with no technical details.
3) Presentation at a limited-attendance workshop with no proceedings (e.g., IEEE-SSCTW, Computer Elements, or presentations to research sponsors). A key element here involves the ability to find any handouts via electronic means or in a printed catalog. For example, if handouts are available to attendees of a workshop, but are not subsequently downloadable or orderable, this is acceptable.
4) Information from an advance program or information from IEEE-sponsored press meetings after  publication or formal press release.
5) Information provided under non-disclosure agreements (NDA) to customers, partners, or other parties.
6) Final, signed versions of Master’s or Ph.D. theses available in open repositories (i.e., libraries, educational institutions), either printed or online. A thesis published for profit is an exception, and is considered prepublication.
7) Published patents and patent applications.

If a conference presentation is selected for a Special Issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits or other SSCS publication, there are expectations for extended and significant new material. The editor is the arbiter when judging pre-publication issues in these cases. Invited or tutorial papers are identified as such in either conference proceedings or journals because they contain primarily prepublished material. However, they are acceptable when of interest to the society membership and technical community as a whole.