What Is the Proceedings of the IEEE?

The Proceedings of the IEEE is the flagship journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, publishing in-depth review, survey, and tutorial articles that document and analyze developments across electrical engineering, electronics, and computer science. Founded in 1913 as the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), the journal is among the oldest continuously published technical journals in the field. When the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the IRE merged in 1963 to form IEEE, the journal was renamed and became the primary publication representing the breadth of the combined organization's technical scope. As described on the Proceedings of the IEEE history page, the journal has documented technological evolution across more than a century, from early wireless telegraphy to contemporary information and communications technologies.

Unlike IEEE society journals that target specialized communities, the Proceedings of the IEEE is explicitly cross-disciplinary. Its intended audience includes practitioners and researchers who need an authoritative, broad-scope perspective on a topic, whether or not they are specialists in the area under review. This scope places special demands on authors, who must write to be understood by a technically literate but non-specialist reader while maintaining the accuracy and depth that IEEE's readership expects.

Publication Types and Scope

The Proceedings of the IEEE publishes three principal article types: reviews, surveys, and tutorials. A review article critically examines a technology and traces its development from inception to its current state. A survey comprehensively covers a technology area including its applications, open problems, and future directions. A tutorial explains a technology in sufficient depth that a reader can understand and potentially implement it. All three types are significantly longer than typical journal articles, with regular papers running between twenty and twenty-five pages in standard IEEE transactions format. The journal covers all major areas claimed by IEEE's member societies, spanning signal processing, communications, power systems, semiconductors, biomedical engineering, and computing. According to the journal's submission guidance for authors, manuscripts must address topics of broad significance rather than narrow incremental advances.

Editorial Process and Standards

The journal employs a highly selective editorial process. Manuscripts undergo prescreening by the Editor-in-Chief and Senior Editors before entering formal peer review, and those that fail to meet scope, technical substance, or grammatical standards are rejected without external review. The formal review uses a single-anonymous process and engages senior reviewers drawn from across the field, producing a review cycle longer than that of most IEEE journals. The journal's acceptance rate is substantially lower than that of most specialty journals, reflecting its role as a venue for work of lasting and cross-cutting significance. IEEE's author ethics and publishing policies govern disclosure, authorship, and data requirements for all submissions.

Historical Significance

The Proceedings of the IEEE has published landmark articles across nearly every major technological era. Its pages have included seminal coverage of radar, the transistor, integrated circuits, satellite communications, and the Internet. The journal's editorial decisions have shaped how technical communities understand the boundaries of sub-fields and the trajectory of emerging areas. Alfred N. Goldsmith, its first editor beginning in 1913, established a standard of attracting leading authors and applying rigorous academic review that has remained consistent through successive editorial teams.

Applications

The Proceedings of the IEEE serves a range of educational, research, and professional functions, including:

• Reference material for engineers and researchers surveying an unfamiliar technical area
• Curriculum resource for graduate engineering programs
• Historical record for the evolution of IEEE-covered technical disciplines
• Benchmark for cross-disciplinary synthesis in technical publishing