The IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE) publishes fundamental papers on Automation, emphasizing scientific results that advance efficiency, quality, productivity, and reliability. T-ASE encourages interdisciplinary approaches from computer science, control systems, electrical engineering, mathematics, mechanical engineering, operations research, and other fields. T-ASE welcomes results relevant to industries such as agriculture, biotechnology, healthcare, home automation, maintenance, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, retail, security, service, supply chains, and transportation.  T-ASE addresses a research community willing to integrate knowledge across disciplines and industries. For this purpose, each paper includes a Note to Practitioners that summarizes how its results can be applied or how they might be extended to apply in practice.

Automation plays an increasingly important role in the global economy and in our daily lives. Engineers strive to combine automated devices with mathematical and organizational tools to create complex systems for a rapidly expanding range of applications and human activities. To meet these challenges, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society has established a major archival journal on Automation Science and Engineering to publish the abstractions, algorithms, theory, methodologies, models, systems, and case studies that can be applied across industries to significantly advance efficiency, quality, productivity, and reliability for society.

The quarterly IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING publishes foundational research on Automation: Scientific methods and technologies that improve efficiency, productivity, quality, and reliability, specifically for methods, machines, and systems operating in structured environments over long periods, and the explicit structuring of environments. Its coverage will go beyond Automation's roots in mass production and include many new applications areas, such as Biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and health care; Home, service, and retail; Construction, transportation, and security; Manufacturing, maintenance, and supply chains; and Food handling and processing. Research includes topics related to robots and intelligent machines/systems in structured environments and the explicit structuring of environments, and topics at the Operational/Enterprise levels such as System Modeling, Analysis, Performance Evaluation; Planning, Scheduling, Coordination; Risk Management; and Supply Chain Management.

T-ASE integrates knowledge across disciplines and industries and, for this purpose, each paper shall include a 100-300 word Note to Practitioners that summarizes without jargon how its results can be applied or how they might be extended to apply in practice to practical problems, thus making the paper more broadly accessible. Writing a good NtP is a challenge. Rather than simply restating the abstract and introduction to the paper in less technical terms, authors are asked to describe the potential and limitations of the work as though they were addressing a colleague from industry. A sample NtP can be found here.

The Transactions publishes both Regular and Short Papers and Communication Items. Short papers usually describe a single result, experiment, or technique of general interest for which a short treatment is appropriate. Communication items are a separate class of short manuscripts that are subject to an expedited review process and substantially faster publication than regular or short papers. Appropriate items include (but are not limited to) rebuttals and/or counterexamples of previously published papers, or preliminary results of significant current research of wide interest. Normally, the editors will review these submissions internally, although they will request outside review when appropriate. Review papers are published periodically, and unsolicited manuscripts of a tutorial or review nature are welcome. It would be advisable for prospective authors of such papers to contact the Editor-in-Chief in advance of submission concerning probable interest. Papers describing specific current applications are encouraged, provided that the designs represent the best current practice, detailed characteristics and performance are included, and they are of general interest. Multipart papers will only be published if there is compelling rationale for a multipart treatment. All parts of such submissions must be accepted for any part to be published.