RA-L Final Submission Checklist

Final Acceptance Letter & Author Checklist

Dear Author:

 Congratulations for the acceptance of your contribution to the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)!

You have two weeks (14 days) from the date of Editor’s decision about acceptance to submit your final material for publication via RA-L PaperCept at http://ras.papercept.net/journals/ral. RA Letters are committed to publish accepted papers within six months from submission with no exceptions. Any paper submitted to RA-L will either appear on Xplore in six months, or be rejected.  Because of this hard constraint, please consider such two weeks as a HARD deadline – implying that your paper will not be published if the material is not received in good order in time.

When ready, please follow the link “Submit final version” next to the accepted paper in your Author workspace to access to the fully electronic final submission procedure. Note that only the corresponding author of the paper has this link active.

Revise the accepted paper following the indications of the Editor upon acceptance, if any, and prepare accordingly the final version in the IEEE Letters format.

The key tools and information for final manuscript preparation are available at https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org (see "IEEE Author Tools for Journals"), including the mandatory IEEE LaTeX or Word templates and style files as well as the guidelines for graphics and for multimedia material. In particular, please pay attention to the electronic format of the figures provided, and to the quality of your multimedia material (if present), its portability on standard platforms, and the requested accompanying files.

It is possible to update your final paper as needed, including slight changes in the title, abstract, order in the list of authors, bibliography, figures and tables, and so on. Please note, however, that all final material needs to be approved by the RA-L Editor-in-Chief before being electronically dispatched to IEEE. In case of problems, you will be contacted. Any major changes, as e.g. the removal or addition of an author, must be notified directly to the supervising Editor and the EiC with a detailed justification. Failure to do so might entail time-consuming due diligence, and thus potentially compromise publication.

In the final submission procedure, you need to provide separately a PDF file of the complete final version of your paper. This version must meet all formatting and style requirements, and will be used as a camera-ready version to appear as a Rapid Posting preprint version on Xplore. Rapid post preprints are citable papers and have a permanent DOI.  Formatting instructions for re-formatting your manuscript into the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters’ own style are available in the IEEE RAL website under Instructions for Authors > Manuscript Preparation > Final Submissions (link: https://www.ieee-ras.org/publications/ra-l/information-for-authors-ra-l#RALManu).

This PDF version will also be used as main reference, in the unlikely event of discrepancies with respect to the source files you will provide. 

 Please, do not prepend a “cover page” to your final paper and insert the figures and tables inside the main text of the paper, where they should be located at best. The final appearance should be as close as possible to the one of published Letters in RA-L.

The page count limit of the PDF file of your final paper is 6 (six) pages in Letters format  w ithout page charge. There is a page charge of 175 USD for each extra page over 6, up to a maximum of 2 extra pages (the system does not allow you to upload a PDF file that is longer than 8 pages).

For the payment of any extra page charge, you will be contacted directly by IEEE at the time of publication. 

 Below you will find a description of the final submission procedure in RA-L PaperCept, which includes also the (electronic) copyright transfer to IEEE. You can browse the Final Submission page to see the actual details. 

For any further doubts, please contact the RA-L Editor-in-Chief. 

Thank you again for your contribution to the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 

Required Actions for the Final RA-L Submission 

Follow the links in the Final Submission page to complete each of the steps. You may leave this page, log out and return to this page later to continue. The steps can be completed in any order, but the following is the best one:

1. Finalize the title and author list
2. Transfer copyright to IEEE
3. Complete the submission meta data
4. Upload the PDF with the final version of the manuscript in the IEEE RAL format
5. Upload the Source files of your paper
6. Upload the Multimedia Attachment

Step 6 is present only if the accepted paper had already a multimedia attachment.

After all mandatory steps have been completed a Next button appears. When you are ready, use this Next button to finalize the submission. Note that final submission is not complete until the status of the paper has changed to 'Final MS received'. You will receive an acknowledgment by e-mail.

1. Finalize the title and author list

The title and author data are preloaded from the database of the accepted version of your paper. You can update and complete the title and author data fields as needed.

If you need to change the order of authors or the corresponding author, or add/delete authors then follow the link Update the author list.

In case of any substantial change to the title and author list (e.g. adding/removing an author), the supervising Editor and EiC should be alerted directly, with a justification of the reasons and evidence of agreement of all involved parties. Failure to do so might entail time-consuming due diligence, and thus potentially fail the strict publication deadlines.

The author data are for the information of the publisher. IEEE membership status is also required. Please, include the fax number (with country and area code) at least for the author who is to receive the galley proofs (by default, the corresponding author). While IEEE will make galley proofs available to this author through a web link, fax could be used as an alternative communication for special situations.

Edit and complete the various fields as needed and click on the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Hint: Changes of author data made on this page are local in nature. You may wish to update first the personal information associated with your PIN and the PIN of your coauthors. Those updates will then be reflected in the author data fields present in this page.

Warning:
At the end of this step, the title and the author list should be considered as definitive. It is important that you do not change them later, in particular, once the transfer of copyright to IEEE has been completed.

2.Transfer copyright to IEEE

Title of the paper and complete list of authors are preloaded from the database (possibly, after having been updated in the previous step). Make sure that they correspond exactly to the definitive ones.

RA-L participates to the IEEE E-Copyright program. In this step, you will be taken to the IEEE Electronic Copyright Form site by clicking on the Continue button.

If you cannot access the IEEE site then please return later. Make sure that your browser has cookies enabled. If the IEEE server denies access then you may have been directed to the submission management system through a site using frames. Please log in to the submission system in a separate window or tab.

After completing the procedure at the IEEE Electronic Copyright Form site you must follow this instruction on the Congratulations page:

"Click on the Return button below to return to the Originating Site."

If you do not click on the "Return" button on this final page then RA-L PaperCept is unable to determine that copyright was transferred and you will not be able to complete the final submission.

i) Read this: if you are not authorized to transfer the copyright yourself

If you are not authorized to transfer the copyright of this publication yourself but need another person in your organization to do this then please access the IEEE copyright wizard by clicking on the Continue button and supply the correct answers to its questions. It will ask you for the details of the person who needs to be approached.

When the procedure has been completed the IEEE wizard will not return you to RA-L PaperCept but you will need to log in again.

As soon as you receive word that copyright has been transferred, return to this page in the Final Submission and click on the Continue button to re-access the IEEE wizard. The first page of the wizard will show a message confirming that copyright has been transferred. When you click on the Return button on that page you will be
returned to the RA-L PaperCept system, which displays a confirmation that copyright has been transferred.

ii) Read this: if copyright was transferred but RA-L PaperCept does not seem to know this

After the copyright transfer has been completed successfully, you should be able to finalize the submission. If for some reason this procedure cannot be completed then please send a copy of the copyright transfer receipt that has been received from IEEE to the RA-L editorial office (EiC.RA.Letters@ieee.org) so that the system may be updated manually. Do not omit to mention the submission number.

3.Complete the submission metadata

Some fields in this step are preloaded from the database of the accepted version of your paper. You can update and complete them as needed.

a) Previous presentation
Complete the information about any conferences where the material of the paper was presented. Use a free text format if several conferences were involved.

b) Keywords
Check the existing and/or supply suitable (additional) index terms. Please note that at least two and up to five RAL keywords should be used. These keywords must coincide with those appearing in your final PDF version just beneath the abstract.

c) Source material
Specify here just the format of the source files of your final paper. Only LaTeX or MS Word (or compatible) are accepted. The use of IEEE LaTeX or Word templates and style files is mandatory. Please also make sure that you followed the formatting instructions available in the IEEE RAL website under Instructions for Authors > Manuscript Preparation > Final Submissions (link: https://www.ieee-ras.org/publications/ra-l/information-for-authors-ra-l#RALManu).

d) Figures
Specify here:
- the number of figures in the paper
- the number of figures that are to be printed in color in the journal (at a surcharge)

Figures in RA-L papers are published on IEEE Xplore in color or black-and-white as supplied, at no charge for color pictures. If any of the color figures is to be published on Xplore in black-and- white or if both a color and a black-and-white version are supplied then provide clear instructions here.

e) Surcharges
There is a mandatory charge of 175 USD per extra page exceeding 6 (six) pages in Letters format. If the paper is found to be in excess of this length then IEEE will send an invoice.

You have to agree to pay any page charges at the stated rate upon receipt of an IEEE invoice.

 4.Upload the PDF with the final version of the manuscript

 Upload here the PDF file with the final version of your manuscript. The maximal size allowed is 5 MB.

 The manuscript should be in the 2-column IEEE format for Letters. If you do not submit the paper in this format, you will be contacted again to reformat the paper (this might pose the publication deadline at a peril).

Please notice that the final version of your paper has a different format than your initial submission, to have a proper Journal appearance. Detailed instructions are available in the Final Submission section of Information for Authors

In your text, make sure to put at least two and up to five RAL keywords just beneath the abstract  

Please, remember the following:
- RA Letters do not include biographical sketches nor photographs of authors
 - do not include a “cover page” in your manuscript
- insert the figures and tables inside the main text of the paper
- extra page charges apply for papers longer than 6 (six) pages
- the system does not allow upload of papers longer than 8 pages

5.Upload the Source files

Upload here all source files needed for the final version of your manuscript in a single zipped archive file. The maximal size is 10 MB, with extension zip.

The acceptable formats for graphic files and photos are: Postscript (PS), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point, Microsoft Excel, or Portable Document Format (PDF). In general, files prepared as GIF, JPEG, WMF, PNG, and BMP (or in any other file formats not listed) are not acceptable and will not be processed.

For more information, see the IEEE website https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org (see "IEEE Author Tools for Journals").

 

 6.Upload the Multimedia Attachment

This step is present only if the accepted paper had already a multimedia attachment. If a Multimedia Attachment was submitted and reviewed, it should also appear in the final version, unless the Editors have explicitly suggested not to do so. You may choose to copy the existing Multimedia Attachment file on the server without re-uploading it or re-upload a new Multimedia Attachment. For checking purposes, you can also download the existing Multimedia Attachment file on the server.

The Multimedia Attachment should include the multimedia files (typically, one or more videos, data sets, code sources), as well as the two ReadMe and Summary files in text format, all in a single zipped archive file. The maximal size is 50 MB, with extension zip.

For the actual content of the ReadMe.txt (user requirements) and Summary.txt (short description of the content) files, please refer to the indications on "Submission of Multimedia Material" given at the RA-L website. In particular, please pay attention to the preparation of videos so as to ensure their portability (visibility) on standard platforms, and follow the IEEE guidelines in referencing to multimedia within the body of the paper.

This material will be archived in IEEE Xplore side by side to the PDF of your paper.

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