Proposers should start by identifying a suitable topic for the special issue. Any topic within the Scope of the Circuit and System Society is appropriate, but bear in mind that special preference is given to new and emerging areas. It is possible that approval for subjects that have already been considered in recent special issues in JETCAS may be more difficult to obtain, unless a clear advance of the state of the art can be demonstrated or the proposer can show a different flavor of the issue.
An issue of JETCAS will consist of 180 printed pages maximum. This corresponds to about 15-20 papers. A topic must be broad enough to capture a sufficient number of submissions to support this size of an issue, but not so broad that the acceptance rate is unacceptably low. Recognizing that such things are difficult to predict, a target acceptance rate would be in the 30-35% range, which suggests that 45-60 submissions is optimal. IEEE will charge a mandatory page charge for each page in excess of 9 pages (incl. references and biographies). Only regular papers, 8 to 14 pages in length without authors' biography and formatted according to the two-column IEEE style file, should be submitted to a JETCAS special issue.
Proposers must assemble a team of 2-4 Guest Editors (GEs), with one individual identified as the contact point (called the Corresponding Guest Editor, CGE). The GEs should be established researchers in the focus area of the special issue, or a closely-allied discipline. At a minimum, the GEs should have several years of post-Ph.D. experience, and a significant track record of relevant technical publications. It is also desirable for the GE team to be technically and geographically balanced with industry and academia represented.
Guest editors may not submit original technical papers for the special issue. However, they are highly encouraged to provide a single overview tutorial-like paper (8-14 pages long). The goal is to help readers understand the topic better and potentially stimulate new researchers to work in the area.
The main responsibilities of the GE team of an approved special issue are summarized here
Note that, after completing the paper review process of an approved special issue, GEs will be requested to provide a lineup of the accepted papers and a guest editorial (including GE bios) to head the special issue. This editorial is a short introductory article (2-3 pages, not to be confused with the optional overview paper) which describes the motivation of the special issue and gives a brief summary of the papers.
Special issue proposals are submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and considered by the IEEE JETCAS Senior Editorial Board. To submit a special issue proposal, the solicitor has to register in the JETCAS system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jetcas) and submit a manuscript as the Special Issue Proposal.
