IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December. Each paper submitted is subjected to a thorough review procedure, and the publication decision is based on reviewer, associate editor, and editor recommendations. Review management is generally under the direction of an associate editor. Our goal is to provide review results in approximately ten weeks.

Submitting a Technical Paper

    All papers should be submitted electronically in Portable Document Format (PDF) or PostScript. The paper should print correctly on 8.5 by 11 inch paper. A text version of your abstract is required.
    Please utilize our manuscript submission system at Manuscript Central.
    While each paper should be self-contained (i.e., fully readable and understandable independently from the multimedia material), we encourage the submission of attachments with the paper. An attachment (video, animations, applets, code, data, etc.) should be referenced in the text of the paper and enhance the presentation. We currently accept avi files (PowerPoint animations), MPEG video files, Java applets, code with specific compilation instructions and execution instructions and machine specific information, and data sets with a description of the data format. More information on multimedia materials can be found at IEEE.org.
    Our primary objective is to publish technical material not otherwise available. If any portion of the manuscript has been presented, published, or submitted for publication elsewhere, please include a description in the cover letter. In addition, cite the original publication in the manuscript.

Style for Manuscript

    Please use double-space format and 11 pt type or larger. Alternatively please use IEEE double column format. Please have your text fit within 8.5x11in. (21.6x27.9cm) sheets.
    Regular papers are normally about 12 Transactions pages in length, or shorter. Technical correspondences are generally no more than 6 Transactions pages in length. Please see the discussion on excess page charges for charges that are imposed when manuscripts exceed the maximum number of pages.
    Since the Transactions publishes only in English, every submitted paper must be written without spelling and/or grammatical errors. The IEEE has partnered with a professional editing services company for those needing support. See http://www.prof-editing.com/ieee/.
    Provide an informative 100 to 250 word abstract at the head of the manuscript.
    References should appear in a separate section at the end of the paper, double-spaced with items referred to by numerals in square brackets. References must be complete and in IEEE style:
    • Style for papers: Author, first initials followed by last name, title in quotations, periodical, volume, page numbers, month, year.
    • Style for books: Author, title. Location: publisher, year, chapter, and page numbers (if desired).
    Provide a separate sheet listing all figure captions.
    Authors of accepted regular papers will be asked to supply a head and shoulders photograph of themselves and a technical biography.
    Accepted papers will appear on the Web on IEEE Xplore approximately three weeks after corrected page proofs are received from an author. This will typically be before the paper appears in the print version of the journal. Hence, papers will be disseminated to the research community faster utilizing electronic submission.
    See additional author information at the IEEE Author Digital Tool Box.

Style for Illustrations

    Original illustrations (including tables) should be sharp, noise-free, and of good contrast.
    On graphs, show only the coordinate axes, or at most the major grid lines to avoid a dense hard-to-read result.
    All lettering should be large enough to permit legible reduction of the figure to column width, sometimes as much as 4 to 1. There should only be one illustration per page and only illustrations should be included in the set of illustrations. Please be very sure that your lettering is sufficiently large such that it will be readable after photo-reduction.
    If an illustration is to be reproduced in color, the author is responsible for the incremental cost of color printing.

Open Access

This publication is a hybrid journal, allowing either Traditional manuscript submission or Open Access (author-pays OA) manuscript submission. Upon submission, if you choose to have your manuscript be an Open Access article, you commit to pay the discounted $1,750 OA fee if your manuscript is accepted for publication in order to enable unrestricted public access. Any other application charges (such as over-length page charge and/or charges for the use of color in the print format) will be billed separately once the manuscript formatting is complete, but prior to publication. If you would like your manuscript to be a Traditional submission, your article will be available to qualified subscribers and purchasers via IEEE Xplore. No OA payment is required for Traditional submission.

Voluntary Page and Excess Page Charges

After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the author's company or institution will be requested to pay a voluntary charge of $110 per printed page to cover part of the cost of publication. These page charges, like those for journals of other professional societies, are not obligatory nor are their payment a prerequisite for publication. The author will receive 100 free reprints without covers if this charge is honored. A mandatory overlength page charge of $175 is required for each page in excess of 12 pages for a regular paper, and 6 pages for technical correspondences. This is effective for any paper published after January 1, 2013 onward. Authors who are concerned with these latter charges are encouraged to estimate the length of their manuscripts prior to submission. Detailed instructions on payment of these charges will accompany the page proof.

Electronic Publishing

The final version of the manuscript must comply with IEEE Periodicals' requirements for text and graphics processing. The author must submit final files electronically through the manuscript submission system. The required files include source file(s) (e.g., Latex or Microsoft Word), figures, and a pdf file of the entire manuscript. Figures can also be embedded in the source file of the manuscript. Acceptable formats for figures include Word, eps, ps, tiff, ppt, and Excel. Further details are contained in the information for authors accompanying the final acceptance letters.

See additional author information at the IEEE Author Digital Tool Box.

Copyright

It is the policy of the IEEE to own the copyright to the technical contributions it publishes on behalf of the interests of the IEEE, its authors, and their employers, and to facilitate the appropriate reuse of this material by others. To comply with U.S. Copyright law, authors are required to sign an IEEE Copyright Form before publication. This form returns to authors and their employers full rights to reuse their material for their own purposes. Authors must submit a completed copy of this form electronically via the manuscript submission system with their accepted manuscript related files.