IEEE TVT Submission Process

First decisions are review-driven and typically take several months, with multi-round major revision normal for accepted papers. For a paper that clears the format and scope checks, the realistic first-decision range is often 3 to 5 months, while edge cases diverge: an over-length or out-of-scope manuscript can be returned in a week or two, and a paper waiting on specialist reviewers can run longer.

If you want an outside read before you open the Author Portal, use the free manuscript readiness check to test whether the vehicular contribution is genuine.

Initial Quality Check: format and scope before routing

The first layer is administrative but still decisive. The TVT check verifies authorship and contributor information, conflict-of-interest and funding declarations, ethics and consent statements where human data are involved, an originality and plagiarism check, and IEEE format with the 14-page initial regular-paper limit. A manuscript can look finished in the portal and still be weak if the abstract and introduction do not make the vehicular electrical-and-electronics contribution the visible center before an Associate Editor reads it.

Editorial Assignment: routing by vehicular-technology topic

TVT uses Associate-Editor routing by topic. The Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to an AE whose expertise matches the area (wireless vehicular communications, vehicular networks and mobile services, vehicular electronics and systems, or connected and autonomous vehicle systems), and the title, abstract, and keywords drive that routing. A paper framed as general communications or electronics can be routed to the wrong reader or returned as a better fit for a sister venue.

Peer Review: AE-managed vehicular assessment

Manuscripts that clear the administrative and scope checks move to expert reviewers selected by the Associate Editor. TVT uses single-blind peer review, and reviewers assess not only correctness but whether the vehicular contribution is genuine and whether the evaluation reflects a realistic vehicular setting.

Final Decision: the vehicular bar stays live after reports return

Even after review, the decision turns on whether the vehicular contribution meets the journal's bar. A technically sound paper can receive a major revision or a reject if the reports show the vehicular framing is thin or the work fits a sister venue.

This is where TVT differs from fast-decision journals. After the administrative check, the Editor-in-Chief routes the manuscript to an Associate Editor, and the AE owns the review from reviewer selection through the recommendation.

At assignment and through review, the implicit questions are:

• is the vehicular electrical-and-electronics or wireless-vehicular contribution the clear center of the work?

• does the evaluation reflect a realistic vehicular setting rather than a generic scenario?

• is the work genuinely in TVT scope rather than a T-COM, TPEL, TTE, or T-ITS topic?

Because review is reviewer-paced, a paper can sit Under Review for two to three months without anything being wrong. The signal to watch is the stage, not the wait.

First-round acceptance is uncommon. The normal positive outcome is major revision, and the revised paper usually returns to the same reviewers, who check whether each point was addressed substantively. Authors who treat the response letter as careful, point-by-point engagement, with new evidence where reviewers asked for it, move through revision faster.

• Reject (administrative or fast): a return on format, page limit, scope, or routing caught before or early in review. Re-route to a sister IEEE venue or rebuild the vehicular contribution.

• Reject after review: the reviewers concluded the vehicular contribution does not meet the journal bar. Consider a sister venue or a substantially revised resubmission.

• Major revision: the normal positive outcome. Substantive concerns, usually about contribution novelty, evaluation realism, or scope. Respond point by point with new evidence.

• Minor revision or accept: uncommon on the first round; usually follows a strong major-revision response.

Four recurring patterns slow otherwise-capable TVT manuscripts in or before review:

• Thin vehicular framing. A generic wireless, networking, or electronics paper is labeled vehicular without a genuine vehicular-systems contribution.
• A sister-venue topic in disguise. Work whose real center is communications theory, power electronics, or transportation electrification fits T-COM, TPEL, or TTE better than TVT.
• An over-length or off-format manuscript. The paper ignores the 14-page initial limit or the page-charge structure, triggering an administrative return.
• A conference extension without a new contribution. A VTS conference paper is submitted with too little new journal content to justify the longer format.

Check whether your TVT contribution is a genuine vehicular advance →

Check if your evaluation reflects a realistic vehicular setting →

Check whether your manuscript meets the TVT 14-page and format check →

This guide tells you what TVT editors and reviewers look for; the review tells you whether your paper passes that bar. 60-day money-back guarantee; authors retain all rights and we do not train models on submitted manuscripts.

In our pre-submission review work on IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology submissions, three patterns account for most of the manuscripts that draw a hard major revision or an early return, before the engineering is in question. Each shows up first in the abstract and introduction, where the Associate Editor reads before inviting reviewers, so the most useful pre-submission step is to test the draft against all three: the framing, the evaluation package, and the vehicular-scope argument the TVT review turns on.

The vehicular contribution is thin

We repeatedly see TVT manuscripts where the method is sound but the vehicular contribution is a label rather than the center: a general wireless or networking technique evaluated in a setting that happens to involve vehicles. Because the Associate Editor must route and champion the work, a thin vehicular framing reads as a better fit elsewhere. The fix we push is to make the specific vehicular electrical-and-electronics or wireless-vehicular advance, and why it matters for vehicular systems, the visible center of the abstract and contribution list.

The evaluation does not reflect a realistic vehicular setting

A related pattern is a method validated on a generic scenario without a realistic vehicular channel model, mobility pattern, or deployment context. TVT reviewers screen for evaluation realism because the journal publishes vehicular-systems work, and we treat a realistic vehicular evaluation and current baselines as a relevance prerequisite rather than an optional strengthening.

The work belongs in a sister IEEE venue

The third pattern is a manuscript whose real center is communications theory, power electronics, transportation electrification, or intelligent-transportation systems, framed as vehicular technology to target the journal. An Associate Editor recognizes the mismatch quickly, and it leads to a return or a slow routing problem. We push authors to test the contribution honestly against TVT, T-COM, TPEL, TTE, and T-ITS before submission, because the right venue on the first try saves months.

TVT (JIF 7.1, vehicular electrical and electronics technology) sits among several adjacent venues, and the scope check is partly a routing decision:

• choose IEEE Transactions on Communications for a communications-theory-centered contribution

• choose IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics for a power-electronics-centered contribution

• choose IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems for an ITS-method or control contribution

• stay with TVT when the work is a genuine vehicular electrical-and-electronics or wireless-vehicular advance

Last verified June 2026 against the IEEE TVT and Vehicular Technology Society author pages and IEEE author guidance. Editorial timing varies and the journal publishes no single headline figure; treat any range as a planning estimate and confirm current timing through the IEEE Author Portal before you submit.