Author Guidelines

Sections

1. Open Access
2. Special Issues
3. Article Types
4. Preparing Your Submission
5. Peer Review and Decisions
6. IET Journal Transfer Network
7. Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles
8. Copyright and Licensing
9. After Acceptance
10. Editorial Office Contact Details

1. Open Access

All IET journals are Gold Open Access titles. Submissions will be subject to an APC if accepted and published in the journal. You can read more about APCs and whether you may be eligible for waivers or discounts, through your institution, funder, or a country waiver.

There is no charge for submitting to IET journals.

2. Special Issues

Special issues of IET Smart Grid highlight emerging topics within the field of engineering or pose interesting questions and offer new perspectives on an existing area of research.

View our special issue calls for papers to submit your research or, if you are interested in submitting a special issue proposal, read our guidelines here.

3. Article Types

The following article types are included in IET Smart Grid:

Original Research Paper

Report of original research findings and data.

Review

Critically examines the body of research on a particular subject and give insights/informed opinions on the direction and future of the research field.

Case Study

Report on a specific instance of an interesting or particular phenomenon or instance related to research areas covered by a journal’s scope.

Industry Article

A report from industrial-based scientists undertaking R&D on a new technology, application or technique which may facilitate future product development.

Comment

Critique of a paper published in the journal to which you are submitting. The authors of the paper that is being critiqued may also opt to write a Reply.

Opinion

Less formal in tone and style than a research or review article, expressing personal views of the author on a particular subject or theme. These are generally by invitation only.

Perspective

Perspectives discuss one or a cluster of recently published papers, or a specific technique or application relevant to the journal’s scope. It should include a discussion of the outlook, challenges, and opportunities.

Perspectives are not like research articles – research articles describe novel findings that have been found as a result of research. A perspective is more like a review paper, however, it differs from a review paper because reviews look widely at the current state of knowledge, how it has changed and what the challenges are whereas a perspective takes a narrower focus, e.g. on a single paper or technique. By invitation only.

4. Preparing Your Submission

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines, please follow the "Submit an article" link on each journal’s home page to ensure you submit your paper to the correct manuscript submission and peer review site.

For help with submissions, please contact [email protected].

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Article Pre-Screening

All papers must be written in English and are pre-screened to ensure that only the most significant are sent for review. Please ensure that your manuscript satisfies the following points:

1. Originality: is the work scientifically rigorous, accurate and novel? Does the work contain significant additional material to that already published? Has its value been demonstrated?
2. Motivation: does the problem considered have a sound motivation? Does the paper clearly demonstrate the scientific interest of the results?
3. Referencing: has reference been made to the most recent and most appropriate work? Is the present work set in the context of the previous work?
4. Clarity: is the English clear and well written? Poorly written English may obscure the scientific merit of your paper. Are the ideas expressed clearly and concisely? Are the concepts understandable?

Free Format Submission

All IET Journals now offer Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this should be a single editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files — whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers. If your manuscript is difficult to read, the editorial office may send it back to you for revision;
• The title page of the manuscript, including statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies (see information on these policies below):
• Data availability statement;
• Funding statement;
• Conflict of interest disclosure;
• Ethics approval statement;
• Patient consent statement;
• Permission to reproduce material from other sources;
• Clinical trial registration.
• Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address;
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org;
• A separate file containing a summary of the corresponding author’s profile. This should consist of: the corresponding author’s institutional email address; their profile page on their institution’s website; their Google Scholar page; and a list of up to ten most recent published papers with links (where available).

Your manuscript must not be under consideration for any other publication while it is being considered by an IET Journal.

If your manuscript was previously a conference paper, you must include information on how it has been expanded. Please see our guidance on expanding conference papers for more information.

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal will also request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to journal requirements as described below.

Preprint Policy

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

All IET journals accept articles previously published on preprint servers.

All IET journals will consider review articles previously available as preprints. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. You may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication.

Data Sharing and Data Availability

IET journals expects data sharing. Please review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.

Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s Data Citation policy.

Funding

You should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

Authorship

For a complete overview of our Ethical Policies for the IET journals, please click here.

The IET believes in clear, transparent and verifiable authorship. In line with ICMJE guidance, to qualify for authorship, each individual must:

1. Have made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the article; or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the article; AND
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content; AND
   
3. Approved the version to be published; AND
4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who do not meet all these criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written approval by any persons named in the Acknowledgements section.

The submitting author must ensure that all authors have seen and agreed to the submitted version of the manuscript and to the inclusion of their names as co-authors or to the inclusion of their names in the Acknowledgements section.

The contributions of each author to the work must now be indicated as part of the submission process, and you will be asked to add Author Contributions using CRediT Taxonomy. Each author on a paper may have one or more CRediT contribution roles, but having a role described by the taxonomy does not automatically qualify one as author. Please review the Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics.

The submitting author is responsible for ensuring all qualifying authors are included on submission with the correct spelling, institution and address details and in the agreed order. The primary affiliation listed for each author should be where the majority of the work was done. If the author has subsequently moved, the current address may be listed as a second affiliation. The Acknowledgements section may be used to further clarify if some or all of the work was conducted at one or more different institutions.

We strongly encourage the use of institutional email addresses for all authors listed on your manuscript. Authors are now asked to provide a separate file on submission containing a summary of the corresponding author’s institutional email address; their profile page on their institution’s website; their Google Scholar page; and a list of up to ten most recent published papers with links (where available). If we are unable to verify the identities of any of the authors, your paper may be withdrawn or rejected.

Unacceptable Authorship Types

The following types of authorship are considered unacceptable and a contravention of publication ethics:

• "Ghost" authors, who contribute substantially but are not acknowledged;
• "Guest"/"Gift" authors, who have made very little or no contribution to the work and do not qualify for authorship.

The IET does not recognise AI tools as authors or as able to fulfil authorship criteria, as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. If AI tools were used in the preparation of any part of the paper, this should be clearly disclosed in the appropriate section of the paper, and authors take full responsibility for the paper in its entirety.

Limit on Number of Submissions per Author

In order to ensure sufficient diversity within the authorship of our journals, authors will be limited to being listed as an author (including as a co-author) on five manuscripts submitted for consideration in a single journal and ten manuscripts submitted for consideration across the IET Journals within a 12-month period.

This policy does not apply to editorials and other non-peer-reviewed manuscript types.

Authorship Change Requests

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and to provide the definitive list of authors with the correct institutions and verifiable details at the time of the original submission.

Adding and/or deleting authors after submission (including at revision stage) is generally not permitted and will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and only where the authorship change complies with the IET’s authorship policy. No requests to amend the authorship can be made after the manuscript has been accepted. Any changes to the listed authors on a paper must be done via an Authorship Change Form which can be requested from the Editorial Office. Any changes to authorship between submission and acceptance must be approved by all authors (including any authors to be removed) and justified. In addition to this, we require the change(s) stated in the form to be approved by the Head of Department of the submitting author (and by the Head of Department of the corresponding author if different).

All requests made will be assessed by the Editorial Office and Editor, and we may request further evidence or contact the authors' institutions to confirm the contribution of each author. The IET reserves the right to refuse requests we do not believe conform with our authorship policies.

ORCID

All IET journals require ORCID. Please refer to Wiley’s resources on ORCID.

Reproduction of Copyright Material

If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms and Conditions FAQ.

The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and other media" from the publisher of the original source, and for supplying Wiley with that permission upon submission.

Title Page 

The title page should contain:

1. A brief informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
2. A short running title of less than 40 characters;
3. The full names of the authors;
4. The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
5. Acknowledgments.

Main Text File

Manuscripts should be uploaded either as a single editable document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files.

The main manuscript text file should be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTeX (.tex) format and include:

• A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations;
• The full names of the authors with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
• Acknowledgments;
• An unstructured abstract;
• Up to seven keywords;
• The main body — formatted as introduction, materials & methods, results, discussion, conclusion;
• References — all references should be cited in the article text;
• Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
• Figures — figure legends must be added beneath each individual image during upload and as a complete list in the text.

All tables and figures should be cited in the text.

LaTeX Guidelines for Submission

For authors requiring a LaTeX template, we strongly recommend reviewing Wiley’s New Journal Design (NJD) LaTeX Authoring Template.

LaTeX users must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box. For reviewing purposes, you should upload a single .pdf that you have generated from your compiled source files.

Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in LaTeX (.tex) format.

When submitting your revision, you must still upload a single .pdf that you have generated from your revised source files. You must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box. In addition, you must upload your TeX source files.

For all your source files you must use the File Designation "Supplemental Material not for review". Previous versions of uploaded documents must be deleted. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, we will use the files you upload to typeset your article within a totally digital workflow.

Post-Acceptance LaTeX Guidelines

Please check that you have supplied the following files for typesetting post-acceptance:

• PDF of the finalized source manuscript files compiled without any errors;
• The LaTeX source code files (text, figure captions, and tables, preferably in a single file), BibTeX files (if used), any associated packages/files along with all other files needed for compiling without any errors. This is particularly important if authors have used any LaTeX style or class files, bibliography files (.bbl, .bst. .blg) or packages apart from those used in the NJD LaTeX Template class file;
• Electronic graphics files for the illustrations in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), PDF or TIFF format. Authors are requested not to create figures using LaTeX codes.

Reference Style

This journal uses the Vancouver reference style. Review our reference style guidelines prior to submission.

As this journal offers Free Format submission, however, this is for information only and you do not need to format the references in your article. This will instead be taken care of by the typesetter.

Figures and Supporting Information

Figures, supporting information, and appendices should be supplied as separate files. You should review the basic figure requirements for manuscripts for peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. View Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

5. Peer Review and Decisions

IET Smart Grid operates under a single-blind peer review model. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief (or designated Editor) determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the title, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.

The final decision on whether a submission is accepted for publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief. This is applicable to all submissions, including those for special issues.

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.

6. IET Journal Transfer Network

Helping you find a home for your paper through the IET’s efficient transfer network: In the event that your submission to IET Smart Grid is unsuccessful, the Editor may offer you the opportunity to transfer your manuscript, along with any reviews, to another related title within the IET portfolio for consideration. The IET is committed to furthering open research within the engineering community, and to helping your paper to reach a wide, global audience as quickly as possible. More information about the benefits of manuscript transfer is available here, along with instructions about what to do next if you would like to take advantage of this opportunity.

7. Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles

For a complete overview of our Ethical Policies for the IET journals, please click here.

All IET journals require that you include in the manuscript details IRB approvals, ethical treatment of human and animal research participants, and gathering of informed consent, as appropriate. You will be expected to declare all conflicts of interest, or none, on submission. Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, animal studies, clinical trial registration, biosecurity, and research reporting guidelines.

This journal follows the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and handles cases of research and publication misconduct accordingly.

This journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors and Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines.

8. Copyright and Licensing

All IET journals are Gold Open Access journals: authors of accepted papers pay an Article Publication Charge and their papers are published under a Creative Commons license. The IET journals use the CC-BY, CC-BY-NC, CC-BY-ND and CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons Licenses. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used.

Authors can deposit all versions of their manuscript in an institutional repository, or other repository of their choice, without embargo.

9. After Acceptance

Wiley Author Services

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication license at this point as well as pay for any applicable APCs.

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email.

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Cover Image Submissions  

This journal accepts artwork submissions for Cover Images. This is an optional service you can use to help increase article exposure and showcase your research. For more information, including artwork guidelines, pricing, and submission details, please visit the Journal Cover Image page. 

Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

Graphical TOC/Abstract

The IET journals’ tables of contents/abstracts will be presented in graphical form with a brief abstract.

The table of contents entry must include the article title, the authors' names (with the corresponding author indicated by an asterisk), no more than 80 words or three sentences of text summarising the key findings presented in the paper and a figure that best represents the scope of the paper.

Table of contents entries should be submitted as "Supplementary material for review" during the initial manuscript submission process.

The image supplied should fit within the dimensions of 50mm x 60mm and be fully legible at this size.

10. Editorial Office Contact Details

If you need any further information or help with your submission, please contact [email protected].

Author Guidelines last updated: November 2023