Publishing Your First Paper

This guide summarises general, publicly published guidance from IEEE's Author Center, Think. Check. Submit., and ORCID. It is not legal or professional advice. Submission requirements vary by journal and conference, so always confirm details on the specific publication's own page before you submit.

So you want to publish. The order matters less than most guides suggest: the work comes first, the venue comes after. This guide follows that order, cross-referenced against IEEE's official process, the main scholarly publisher in electrical, electronics and power engineering.

1. Start from the problem, not the journal

Find what you actually want to research or write about: a question you keep hitting at work, a gap in the literature, a result that surprised you. That is the seed, and it exists before any journal enters the picture. Some official guidance suggests choosing your target publication before finalising the manuscript, but chasing a venue's scope before you have a result inverts the work. Write about what you can genuinely contribute, and the fit will be found afterward.

2. Do the research and write the manuscript

Perform the research and write it up properly: method, results, limitations, and an honest account of what the work does not show. A manuscript written to completion on its own merits gives you something real to match against journals, rather than a half-plan bent toward one venue's preferences. If you want a public, time-stamped record before you've settled on a venue, IEEE does not treat a preprint posted to arXiv or TechRxiv as prior publication, so posting one at this stage carries no risk to a later IEEE submission.

3. Now find the journals your work applies to

With a finished manuscript, shortlist the journals or conferences whose published scope your work actually fits. Read the "Aims & Scope" section on each candidate's IEEE Xplore page and skim a few recently published papers there: an article can be rejected before it even reaches peer review if it falls outside a journal's stated scope, so this check happens before you submit, whichever order you wrote in.

One hard rule at this stage: you can only submit to one publication at a time. Submitting the same manuscript to two journals simultaneously is a serious violation of publishing ethics, not a shortcut.

Before you commit, also verify each venue is legitimate, not just relevant, using the Think. Check. Submit. checklist: can you contact the publisher directly, is peer review clearly described, is it genuinely indexed, and are fees and their timing stated plainly. A journal failing most of these is worth walking away from, however fast it promises to publish.

A starting shortlist in power systems, smart grid, and renewable and sustainable energy:

Impact factors as published on each journal's own page, checked August 2026 (IEEE Access names its 2025 JCR year; the IEEE PES pages state a current figure without naming one). Where a row reads "not published on the journal's own page," that journal's own official page carried no Impact Factor as of that check.

4. Modify only as the target requires

Every publication has its own "Information for Authors" page, usually linked from the journal's IEEE Xplore page, covering formatting, length limits, reference style and any required declarations: conflicts of interest, funding sources, prior publication, and increasingly, generative-AI use. IEEE's own policy requires disclosing any AI-generated content, text, figures, images or code, in your acknowledgments, naming the AI system used and which sections it touched; routine AI-assisted editing or grammar-checking falls outside that requirement, though IEEE still recommends disclosing it. Modifications belong here: adapting the manuscript to a target's requirements or its reviewers' comments, not reshaping the research around a venue.

5. Submit through the publisher's portal

Once your manuscript matches the target's guidelines, submit it through that publisher's online system, for IEEE, the IEEE Publishing Portal, which walks you through submission and lets you track status afterward. You'll also need a registered ORCID iD (free, via orcid.org): IEEE requires one for every author. Most journals also expect a short cover letter: per IEEE Photonics Society guidance, a few sentences on the problem, your main result, why the journal fits, and, if relevant, how the work extends anything you previously published, not a restated abstract.

If your target is a hybrid journal, you'll separately be asked whether to pay for open access (the 2026 IEEE hybrid rate is $2,800). This is optional: "hybrid" means the journal also publishes non-open-access articles through its standard subscription model, so skipping it does not block a funding-less first-time author from publishing.

6. Understand what peer review actually involves

Once submitted, your manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers before an editor decides whether to accept, reject, or request revisions. IEEE's author guidance states that "most IEEE publications use the single-anonymous format," meaning reviewers know who you are but you don't know who they are, though a specific journal may use double-anonymous or transparent review instead, so check that journal's own policy. Reviewers assess scope fit, novelty, technical validity, data accuracy, clarity, and the paper's contribution to the field.

7. Respond to reviewer feedback properly

If reviewers ask for revisions, the most common first outcome, address every point they raise, even ones you disagree with; where you push back, explain your reasoning point-by-point rather than simply ignoring the comment. Resubmission policy after a rejection varies by venue: IEEE Access requires a separate "list of updates" document covering each reviewer concern, your response, and the actual change made. Check your specific target's own guidelines rather than assuming one approach applies everywhere.