What Is the IEEE Publications Bulletin?

The IEEE Publications Bulletin is an internal communications vehicle produced by the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB) to inform IEEE editorial volunteers, publication editors, and publishing staff of policy updates, procedural changes, and developments relevant to the operation of IEEE's publication program. It occupies a distinct role within the IEEE communications ecosystem: it addresses not the membership at large, but the specific community of people who govern and operate journals, transactions, magazines, and conference proceedings on IEEE's behalf. As the publication portfolio has grown to encompass more than 200 peer-reviewed journals and over 1,800 annual conferences, coordinating editorial policy across that distributed system requires a dedicated communications channel.

The PSPB, which the Bulletin serves, reports to the IEEE Board of Directors and is responsible for formulating and recommending information policy, setting standards and procedures for IEEE information dissemination, and coordinating publication activities across IEEE's technical societies and organizational units. The Bulletin translates those policy decisions into guidance that editors, society publication chairs, and volunteer board members can apply to their day-to-day publishing work.

Content and Scope

The Bulletin covers topics that arise at the intersection of editorial governance and publishing operations: new or revised policies on author submission, peer review practices, open access requirements, ethical guidelines, and changes to the IEEE Author Center procedures that govern how authors and editors interact with the publishing system. It also carries announcements about new publication launches or discontinuations, updates to IEEE Xplore's functionality, and decisions from the PSPB's governance processes that affect how society-level editorial boards operate. This content is procedural rather than technical: readers are editors and committee members who need accurate current information about the policies governing the publications they manage.

Role in IEEE Publication Governance

IEEE's publication governance structure involves hundreds of volunteer editors distributed across more than forty technical societies, each of which operates its own journals, transactions, and magazines within shared IEEE-wide rules. Maintaining consistency in peer review standards, ethical requirements, and publication policies across that distributed network is an ongoing coordination challenge. The IEEE Publications Bulletin addresses this by providing a regular, authoritative source of updated guidance that editors can consult when questions arise about policy and procedure. The IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual provides the full policy framework from which the Bulletin derives its content.

Audience and Distribution

The Bulletin's primary audience is volunteer editors-in-chief, associate editors, and editorial board members across IEEE's journal and magazine portfolio, along with the professional staff at IEEE who support publication operations. Society officers with publication oversight responsibilities also receive the Bulletin as part of their role. Its distribution is internal to the IEEE editorial community rather than aimed at the broader IEEE membership or the public technical readership.

Applications

The IEEE Publications Bulletin supports work in:

• Editorial policy coordination across IEEE technical societies and journals
• Onboarding and ongoing training for volunteer editorial board members
• Communication of open access policy changes and author rights updates
• Dissemination of peer review best practices and ethical guidelines
• Coordination of publication launches, discontinuations, and format changes