IEEE Announces Retractions from the IEEE Xplore® Digital Library

Report Recommendations Will Further Strengthen Peer-Review Processes

Piscataway, N.J. – 3 December 2019 – IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced it is retracting 30 articles that were published in IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility from 2016 to 2018 and 19 articles from the 2018 International Conference on Computing and Network Communications (“CoCoNet”) due to violations of IEEE's peer-review process policies. IEEE requires strict adherence to its publishing policies and will issue retractions when warranted. 

In 2018, IEEE found evidence that there were violations of the peer-review process for IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility and retracted 29 articles. IEEE continuously inspects its digital library, IEEE Xplore, and, if necessary, retracts nonconforming publications. A thorough follow-up investigation identified the additional 30 noncompliant articles. The retraction of the conference articles was the result of a similarly comprehensive investigation.

“A high-quality, peer-review process is essential to maintaining our core standards of trust and integrity,” said Michael Forster, Managing Director, Publications, IEEE. “If we find that our policies are violated, IEEE will take action and address the situation appropriately.”

To that end, and to further strengthen the peer-review process, IEEE’s Board of Directors tasked an ad hoc committee with examining IEEE’s peer-review policies, practices, and systems. Following a detailed evaluation, the committee issued a number of key recommendations for improvement and issued this summary document, which describes its findings. 

IEEE will refine its processes in three key areas:

• Peer-review monitoring
• IEEE Publications Policy updates
• Deterrents and sanctions

The Committee’s recommendations will be implemented over the next year, including changes to IEEE publications policies, which will be publicly available.

About IEEE
IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice in a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org.