Editorial Board Guidelines

This document provides guidelines about the review process of IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology (OJVT) for the Editor-in-Chief, Editors-at-Large, Editors, and other interested individuals.

The IEEE OJVT was launched in 2020 as an open access, all-electronic journal. It covers the theoretical, experimental and operational aspects of electrical and electronics engineering in mobile radio, motor vehicles and land transportation: 

• Mobile radio shall include all terrestrial mobile services. 
• Motor vehicles shall include the components, systems and motive power for propulsion and auxiliary functions. 
• Land transportation shall include the components and systems used in both automated and non-automated facets of ground transport technology.

• Original content – Regular paper
• Invited paper

The Editor-in-Chief oversees the Editorial Board and is responsible for appointing the Editors-at-Large and Editors.

The role of an Editor-at-Large includes and may not be limited to the following:

• If there is a potential conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the authors of a manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to the Editor-at-Large, who in turn assigns it to an Editor to conduct the review process. After the Editor makes a preliminary decision, the Editor-in-Chief also delegates the final decision-making to the Editor-at-Large.
• If a manuscript is of low quality, the Editor-in-Chief assigns it to an Editor-at-Large, who may consider recommending a quick rejection with justification.
• If there is a potential conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the authors who propose a special issue of the journal, the Editor-in-Chief assigns the special issue proposal to the Editor-at-Large to review and make decision.
• For the Editor-at-Large to handle any manuscripts that the Editor-in-Chief may have a conflict of interest, it is recommended that the Editor-in-Large has a different affiliation from that of the Editor-in-Chief.

The roles of an Editor include and may not be limited to the following:

• Conduct a rapid review process of any assigned manuscript, with the target of a publication time frame of four (4) to six (6) weeks for most accepted manuscripts.

Editor-in-Chief: The normal appointment is for two (2) calendar years, and is renewable for another two-year term. As such, the maximum term of continuous service is four (4) calendar years.

Editor-at-Large: The normal appointment is for two (2) calendar years, and is renewable for another two-year term. As such, the maximum term of continuous service is four (4) calendar years.

Editor: The normal appointment is for two (2) calendar years, and is renewable for another two-year term. As such, the maximum term of continuous service is four (4) calendar years.

The Editor-in-Chief may retire an Editor-at-Large or Editor at any time, if they deem it appropriate. The Editor-at-Large and Editor are also free to resign at any time with the understanding that they will follow through on all their current assignments until making the preliminary decisions on the assigned manuscripts.

An online peer review process is used through IEEE OJVT Manuscript Central. The peer review process is summarized with the following steps: 

1. An author submits their manuscript online.
2. The Editor-in-Chief checks that the electronic file is readable and conformal to the author's instructions.
3. The Editor-in-Chief runs the Duplicate Submission Check and Crossref Similarity Check, if both are passed:
   1. If there is no conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the author(s), the Editor-in-Chief assigns an editor to conduct the review process. 
   2. If there is a conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the author(s), the Editor-in-Chief assigns an Editor-at-Large who in turn assigns an editor to conduct the review process. 
4. The assigned Editor checks for scope and conflict of interest.
5. The assigned Editor requests reviewers.
6. Reviewers review the manuscript.
7. The assigned Editor collects reviews.
8. In some cases where the reviews may be below standards, the assigned Editor is recommended not to form their decisions based on these below-par reviews. They are recommended to either rescind the below-par reviews to the reviewers to resubmit their review or invite more reviewers to review the manuscript.
9. The assigned Editor notifies reviewers who did not send in a review that their help is no longer needed.
10. The assigned Editor makes a preliminary decision.
11. After receiving the preliminary decision from the assigned editor:
    1. If there is no conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the author(s), the Editor-in-Chief reviews and approves preliminary decision. 
    2. If there is a conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the author(s), the Editor-in-Chief delegates an Editor-at-Large to review and approve the preliminary decision. 

If approved, an email is sent to all co-authors with a copy to the assigned Editor and a blind copy to the reviewers. If a preliminary decision is not approved, the manuscript is returned to the assigned Editor with an explanation of what to do next.

It is our editorial goal to publish a manuscript within four (4) to six (6) weeks after an Editor receives the manuscript from the Editor-in-Chief or Editor-at-Large to conduct the review process. The average workload for each Editor may vary but it is typically no more than two new manuscripts per month (without considering any resubmitted manuscript).

To ensure a rapid review cycle, the following plan is recommended.

• Carefully select reviewers and request reviews within three (3) calendar days. Editors strive to secure at least two (2) solid reviews for each manuscript.
• The reviewer should agree or decline to review the paper within one (1) week. If the reviewer does not respond after one (1) week, an automatic email reminder with the subject “Reviewer Invitation Reminder - OJVT-<manuscript-number>” is sent to the reviewer. As a best practice, if the assigned Editor does not hear from the reviewer after one (1) week, it is recommended that they invite additional reviewers.
• The review should be completed within fifteen (15) calendar days. Automatic reminders are sent out.
• As a recommended practice, Editors are expected to check on the status of outstanding manuscripts in their accounts at least once per week and take action as required.

If Editors suspect some form of author misconduct such as plagiarism, double submission (submission of the same paper to two journals at the same time), etc., they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately, who will usually take over the manuscript and report the misconduct to the VTS Vice President Publications and IEEE (see Section 8.2.4 of the IEEE Publications Services and Products Board Operations Manual), and form an ad hoc committee to investigate.

On making editorial decisions, the following plan is recommended:

• Before making an editorial decision, the Editor shall read both the manuscript and the reviewers’ comments. The reviewers provide recommendations but the Editor shall not form their decision based on the majority’s comments. In other words, the Editor is not bound by the reviewers’ recommendations and may not accept them if there are good reasons for not doing so.
• The Editor decides on the manuscript, i.e., “Accept as is”, “Reject (update and resubmit encouraged)”, or “Reject (do not encourage resubmit)”.
• In the decision letter, the Editor shall provide a rationale for their decision by filling in “Comments to the Author” in the ManuscriptCentral. The length of this rationale shall reflect the degree of difficulty in arriving at the decision. Based on experience, a good rationale helps avoid potential conflicts with authors. The emphasis of the rationale should be on undisputable facts, especially if the manuscript is rejected and resubmission is not encouraged.

Although the review process of the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology may be different from that of this journal, the resources from the Information for Editors webpage of the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology can be helpful.