Post-Publication Policies

Learn about the IEEE policies that affect your book after it is published.

Correcting Metadata in the IEEE Xplore® Digital Library

Excerpted from the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB) Operations Manual, Section 8.1.10.

  1. If an error is discovered within the metadata records for periodicals, conferences proceedings, standards, press books, educational courses, or multimedia files contained on IEEE Xplore, a request for correcting the error may be submitted to the Staff Executive – Publications. Requests shall identify the error, recommend an appropriate correction to the metadata, and provide a statement of justification for correcting the error. Acceptable requests include, but are not limited to, an author name is either missing from or spelled incorrectly; author affiliation is incorrect or missing; title of publication is incorrect; author order is incorrect; publication has missing text; publication has missing or incorrect graphics or figures; publication has an error in publication identifiers (DOI, ISSN or ISBN); and publication has been truncated or is missing pages. Such requests should be verifiable from comparing original submissions with the published work or the requester has provided sufficient documentation to justify the correction. Unacceptable requests are those that alter the author’s original intent of the article, or that involve a possible breach of publications policy.
  2. The IEEE Executive Director has designated that the Staff Executive – Publications shall assign the investigation, confirmation, and correction of IEEE Xplore metadata to staff within the IEEE Publications department. Staff shall establish criteria and guidelines for correcting author metadata records in IEEE Xplore. Verification of errors shall include review and approval by the authoritative individual or body behind the publication record (such as the Editor-in-Chief, conference organizer, organizational unit, etc.). These criteria and guidelines, and changes thereto, shall be approved by PSPB before application.
  3. If an error is confirmed using the established criteria and guidelines, staff shall modify the IEEE metadata record itself and add an annotation to the bibliographic view in IEEE Xplore to describe the correction for the user. The full-text document (e.g., PDF) associated to the metadata shall not be changed.
  4. In the event a case cannot be resolved, the Vice President – Publication Services and Products, shall be the officer authorized to determine a resolution. The resolution shall be final and not subject to appeal.
  5. Staff of the IEEE Publications department shall provide information at the last PSPB meeting of the calendar year summarizing actions taken during the immediate past 12 months.

IEEE Author Name Change Policy

IEEE supports the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) initiative and guidelines on an inclusive approach to author name changes.

Learn more about IEEE’s author name change policy.

Removing Access to Content in IEEE Xplore

Excerpted from the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB) Operations Manual, Section 8.1.11.

A. Under an extraordinary situation, it may be desirable to remove access to the content in IEEE Xplore for a specific article, standard, or press book. Removal of access shall only be considered in rare instances, and examples include, but are not limited to, a fraudulent article, a duplicate copy of the same article, a draft version conference article, a direct threat of legal action, and an article published without copyright transfers. Requests for removal may be submitted to the Staff Executive – Publications. Such requests shall identify the publication and provide a detailed justification for removing access.

B. The IEEE Executive Director has designated that the Staff Executive – Publications shall assign the investigation and validation of requests, and removal of metadata access to staff within the IEEE Publications department. Staff shall establish criteria and guidelines for this process. Validation of requests shall include review and approval by the authoritative individual or body behind the publication record (such as the Editor-in-Chief, conference organizer, organizational unit, etc.). These criteria and guidelines, and changes thereto, shall be approved by PSPB before application. The final decision for removal, however, shall remain with the Vice President – Publication Services and Products.

C. If the request is validated and approved by the Vice President – Publication Services and Products, staff shall take the following actions:
  1. The original metadata record shall be retained, but staff shall annotate the record with a note regarding the status of access to the full-text document.
  2. The full-text document (e.g., PDF) associated to the metadata shall be handled with one of the following two actions, depending on the results of the investigation and evaluation.
    a. Remove original full-text document, and replace with a new notice that states the reason for removal; or
    b. Retain original full-text PDF, but annotate with comments regarding the disposition of the claim.

D. The Vice President – Publication Services and Products, shall be the officer authorized to determine a resolution. The resolution shall be final and not subject to appeal.

E. Staff of the IEEE Publications department shall document each instance for record keeping, as well as provide an information report at the last PSPB meeting of the calendar year about actions taken during the immediate past 12 months.

Text and Data Mining

IEEE permits non-commercial text and data mining of articles published open access with either the Open Access Publishing Agreement (OAPA) or the Creative Commons license (CC BY).  No permission is required for non-commercial mining of open access articles. Mining for commercial purposes or mining of non-open access content requires permission from IEEE; contact pubs-permissions@ieee.org for further information.

IEEE and Portico

IEEE partners with Portico, a not-for-profit “dark archive” that preserves digital publications, including IEEE articles.  Visit Portico to learn more.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

IEEE allows Licensees and Authorized Users to deliver a reasonable number of copies of manuscripts (including through use of Ariel or a substantially similar interlibrary loan transmission software) to fulfill requests from non-commercial, academic libraries located within the same country as Licensee; provided, however, that such practice:

  1. complies with Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act and the guidelines developed by the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU Guidelines); and
  2. does not result in systematic reproduction of the Licensed Products, any journal or issue of a journal, any manuscript, or any portion of the foregoing.

Currently, interlibrary loan is only available in the Academic License Agreement.

If you have any questions, please contact the IEEE Customer Center at onlinesupport@ieee.org.