IEEE Access

IEEE Access
Title	IEEE Access
Discipline	Electrical engineering, Computer science, Electronics
Language	English
Publisher	IEEE
Country	United States
Frequency	Continuous
History	2013–present

IEEE Access IEEE Access is a multidisciplinary open-access journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It publishes peer-reviewed articles across electrical engineering-related fields and adjacent areas, offering rapid publication and broad topical scope. The journal aims to serve authors from academia, industry, and government laboratories by providing an outlet with continuous publication and wide distribution.

Overview

IEEE Access covers a wide array of topics in electrical engineering, computer science, information technology, telecommunications, signal processing, control systems, power systems, robotics, nanotechnology, optics, biomedical engineering, semiconductor devices, antenna design, embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain, cloud computing, edge computing, wireless networks, 5G NR, Internet of Things, satellite communications, photovoltaics, electric vehicles, energy storage, smart grid, quantum computing, sensors, microelectromechanical systems, VLSI design, computer vision, natural language processing, human–computer interaction, data mining, big data, signal integrity, electromagnetics, high-performance computing, biomedical imaging, medical devices, wearable technology, materials science, metamaterials, RF engineering, antenna arrays, optical communications, fiber optics, speech processing, multimedia systems, information theory, control theory, system identification, embedded AI and related domains, positioning itself at the intersection of multiple IEEE Societies and Councils such as IEEE Communications Society, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Power & Energy Society, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, IEEE Photonics Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE Electron Devices Society, IEEE Industry Applications Society, IEEE Sensors Council, IEEE Education Society.

History and Development

The journal was launched in 2013 during a period of expansion in open-access publishing influenced by initiatives associated with Plan S and developments in scholarly communication involving organizations like Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell, Public Library of Science, BioMed Central and Frontiers. Its creation followed discussions within IEEE governance bodies involving committees and boards such as the IEEE Publications Board, IEEE Standards Association, and collaborations with editors from institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore and ETH Zurich. Over time the journal expanded editorial sections, implemented continuous publication workflows inspired by publishers such as PLOS and Nature Communications, and grew submission volume from early adopter authors affiliated with Google, Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Siemens, Qualcomm, Intel, NVIDIA and major national laboratories like Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Editorial Structure and Peer Review

The journal operates under an editorial model that includes an Editor-in-Chief supported by Associate Editors and an Editorial Board drawn from scholars at institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Peking University, Seoul National University, University of Tokyo, KAIST and research groups at Bell Labs. Manuscripts undergo peer review by external reviewers who are researchers from academia and industry affiliated with organizations like Amazon Web Services, Apple Inc., Facebook (Meta), Huawei, Tata Consultancy Services and national research councils. The peer-review process is intended to assess novelty, correctness, and significance consistent with practices at journals such as IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. Editorial decisions and reviewer assignments are managed through editorial management systems used across the publishing industry by publishers like ScholarOne and Editorial Manager.

Publication Model and Open Access Policy

IEEE Access operates as a gold open-access journal requiring an article processing charge (APC) similar to models used by PLOS, Nature Communications, Scientific Reports and Frontiers Media. The APC funds production, indexing, and hosting services and aligns with open-access policies promoted by funders such as the National Institutes of Health, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, UK Research and Innovation and national funding agencies in China and India. Articles are published under permissive licenses comparable to Creative Commons Attribution variants and are deposited into indexing services and repositories that also index journals like IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, CrossRef, PubMed Central (for eligible content), and institutional repositories at universities including Harvard University, University of Michigan and University of Toronto.

Indexing, Impact, and Reception

The journal is indexed by major citation databases including Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and IEEE Xplore, and it has been assigned impact metrics reported by organizations like Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science) and Elsevier (Scopus). Metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor and CiteScore have been used to evaluate the journal alongside legacy publications like IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. Reception in the scholarly community has been mixed: some researchers from Princeton University, Yale University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Cornell University praise the rapid publication and broad audience, while others at institutions including McGill University, University of British Columbia and various European research centers have raised concerns about editorial standards relative to long-established specialty journals.

Notable Controversies and Criticisms

Criticism of the journal has focused on perceived rapid acceptance rates, editorial practices, and APC levels, issues also debated in contexts involving publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley. High-profile debates have involved members of the IEEE Publications Board, university librarians from consortia like California Digital Library and SPARC advocates, and editorial responses from academics at University College London and Delft University of Technology. Instances of special-issue guest-editor practices and paper-quality concerns prompted scrutiny comparable to controversies that affected journals published by Hindawi and led to policy clarifications and process adjustments within IEEE’s publishing operations. Proponents, including authors from Texas A&M University, Ohio State University and University of Southern California, defend the journal for improving access and dissemination for applied research in engineering and technology.

Category:Academic journals