The IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office is pleased to announce the release of two new electronic copyright form (eCF) tools for publication volunteers who are responsible for collecting, submitting and monitoring IEEE Copyright Forms. These tools will help save significant amounts of time and effort for IEEE editors by making the eCF system and the information within it more widely available to a larger number of volunteers.

If you already have registered to use the eCF Administrative Tools, please login here.

eCF Report Tool

In response to the volunteers’ need to track eCF submissions, the IPR Office and the IEEE Publishing Technology Group have developed the eCF Report Tool, which volunteers can use to generate a downloadable Excel spreadsheet report showing all of the eCFs submitted to their specific publication title. Using this report, editors will be able to see those authors who have and (more importantly) those who have not yet submitted an electronic IEEE Copyright Form to accompany their already submitted manuscripts.

The other new tool developed by the IPR Office and the Pub Tech Group will enable the use of the eCF by a publication that has not yet begun to use an electronic manuscript submission system. The eCF Upload Tool will provide editors with a simple process to enter metadata on all currently submitted manuscripts into the eCF system. Authors will then receive an email with a user ID and password, as well as clear instructions on accessing the eCF to transfer their copyright to IEEE.

To take advantage of these important new tools, volunteers are invited to go to the eCF Administrative Tools registration Web page to begin the process of accessing and using these helpful tools.