IEEE Electrification Magazine

About IEEE Electrification Magazine

IEEE Electrification Magazine: An In-Depth Profile

IEEE Electrification Magazine (abbreviated MELE) is a quarterly magazine published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) through its IEEE Transportation Electrification Council (IEEE-TEC). It is important to understand at the outset that this publication is a magazine, not a peer-reviewed academic journal — its feature articles are written for broad accessibility and practitioner relevance rather than as dense research papers. At the same time, IEEE states that its feature articles do pass through a formal peer-review process: every published feature article is reviewed by a minimum of two independent reviewers under a single-anonymous process, and submissions are screened for plagiarism before acceptance.

All editions of the magazine are digitally archived in IEEE Xplore, the IEEE's official digital library, and members of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council receive the electronic version of the magazine free of charge. The magazine serves a worldwide readership of engineers, researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals working on the electrification of transportation and off-grid energy systems.

Key Facts at a Glance

• Full title: IEEE Electrification Magazine
• Abbreviation: MELE
• Publication type: Magazine (technical, professionally edited; feature articles are peer reviewed)
• Publisher: IEEE, via the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council (IEEE-TEC)
• Frequency: Quarterly (4 issues per year)
• Launched: 2013 (Volume 1, Issue 1 published September 2013)
• Print ISSN: 2325-5897
• Online ISSN: 2325-5889
• Digital archive: IEEE Xplore
• Founding Editor-in-Chief: Saifur Rahman (Virginia Tech)
• Editor-in-Chief: Yaobin Chen
• Manuscript submission: IEEE Author Portal (feature articles); separate form for non-peer-reviewed columns

History of the Magazine

IEEE Electrification Magazine was launched in 2013 under the auspices of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council, the IEEE body that coordinates the organization's activities across transportation electrification. The first issue (Volume 1, Number 1) appeared in September 2013 and carried, among other features, an article on the mechanical design aspects of railway electrification — signaling from the start the magazine's commitment to the full breadth of electrified transport: road, rail, sea, and air.

The founding Editor-in-Chief was Saifur Rahman of Virginia Tech, a Life Fellow of the IEEE and an internationally recognized authority on energy and power systems. Rahman's biographical records from IEEE-affiliated organizations identify him as the founding Editor-in-Chief of both IEEE Electrification Magazine and IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, and he went on to serve as President of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (2018–2019) and later as IEEE President.

The magazine was created to fill a gap that its organizers had identified: while IEEE published many highly specialized Transactions and conference proceedings, there was no IEEE venue dedicated to accessible, forward-looking magazine-style coverage of electrification as a unifying theme. The "microgrid" concept sits at the intellectual heart of the publication — the editors use it to mean not only conventional community microgrids, but also the electrical networks inside cars, ships, trains, and aircraft, each of which must balance a limited number of energy sources against many different types of loads.

The current Editor-in-Chief, as listed on the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council's official publications page, is Yaobin Chen, who serves as the contact point for authors with questions about the suitability of their manuscripts.

Aims and Scope (Paraphrased from the Official Description)

According to its official publisher, IEEE Electrification Magazine is devoted to spreading information on essentially everything connected to microgrids found aboard electric vehicles, ships, trains, and aircraft, as well as off-grid applications — including the electrification of remote communities and decarbonization strategies. In this context, "microgrids" covers the self-contained electrical networks within vehicles and vessels as well as small multi-carrier energy systems that deliver electricity and heat in areas far from high-voltage transmission networks.

Its feature articles examine advanced concepts, technologies, and practices across every dimension of electrification in the transportation and off-grid sectors, deliberately combining technical treatment with non-technical perspectives from business, environmental science, social concerns, and public policy. Typical coverage areas include:

• Electric road vehicles — batteries, charging infrastructure, extreme and ultrafast charging, and vehicle-grid interaction
• Railway electrification — energy metering, DC efficiency in metropolitan railways, and design of electrified rail systems
• Marine and maritime electrification — electric shipboard power systems
• Electrified aviation — more-electric and all-electric aircraft concepts, high-voltage power systems for aircraft
• Off-grid and remote electrification — microgrids for remote communities and military bases
• Renewables integration — solar generation, energy storage, and coordinated control at residential and grid levels
• Policy and business dimensions — decarbonization strategies, utility infrastructure, and the economics of electrification

Editorial Structure

The magazine is produced by the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council and processed through the IEEE Magazines Department. Editorial leadership, as officially listed by IEEE-TEC, is headed by Editor-in-Chief Yaobin Chen. Since its founding, the magazine has maintained an editorial board organized around its core domains — electric vehicles, electric ships, electric trains, electric planes, and off-grid applications — with editors and co-editors for each area, alongside the IEEE Magazines Department staff (managing editor, art directors, production coordinators) who handle layout, opening artwork, and production.

The IEEE Transportation Electrification Council maintains the current masthead and author guidance on its official publications page; authors with questions about manuscript suitability are directed to contact the Editor-in-Chief directly. Only the founding and current Editors-in-Chief named above are individually verified from official IEEE-affiliated sources; IEEE does not publish a standalone public editorial board roster separate from its publications pages.

Metrics and Indexing

IEEE itself does not publish an impact factor, acceptance rate, or citation statistics for the magazine. The figures below are taken from third-party indexing databases that cite Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and Scopus data; they are provided here with explicit attribution rather than as IEEE-published numbers.

• Journal Citation Reports impact factor (as reported by the Comillas Pontifical University journal directory): 2.5 (2023, Q2); 3.0 (2024, Q2)
• Scimago Journal Rank / SJR indicator (same source): 0.932 Q1 (2023); 0.813 Q1 (2024); 0.694 Q2 (2025)
• CiteScore (as reported by researcher.life): 4.9
• SNIP (as reported by researcher.life): 1.03

The magazine is indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, and all editions are archived in IEEE Xplore, where abstracts and keywords support discovery through Compendex, INSPEC, Medline, ProQuest, and Web of Science indexing services. IEEE does not publish an official acceptance rate or average review duration for the magazine, and none is stated here.

Submission Information

Manuscript submission for IEEE Electrification Magazine follows two tracks, as described on the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council's official publications page:

Feature articles (peer reviewed)

Feature articles are submitted through the IEEE Author Portal. The magazine's official author guidance emphasizes that articles are intended to have broad appeal: they should be written clearly and in active voice, with jargon and acronyms kept to a minimum. As the guidance puts it, a first-year engineering student should be able to understand almost all of every article. Key requirements include:

• Manuscript in a single Word document, single-column format (not the double-column format of IEEE Transactions papers)
• Approximately 5,000 words in length (the detailed guidelines specify 5,000 to 6,000 words)
• A 150–200 word abstract, written as a single paragraph without equations, plus three or four keywords, for indexing in IEEE Xplore
• Approximately 10–12 figures, tables, graphics, or photos at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, placed at their intended locations in the body of the article
• Written permission for any images or material not created by the authors
• A short reference list, typically 10–15 references, with self-citations minimized
• A one-line author biography for each author (name, email, affiliation, country)

Every feature article is peer reviewed by at least two independent experts under a single-anonymous process (reviewers' identities are hidden from authors, not vice versa), and articles are screened for plagiarism before acceptance. Upon acceptance, authors sign an IEEE copyright form and submit the final source files. IEEE also permits authors to post accepted versions of their articles on arXiv, with the IEEE copyright notice and the article's DOI.

Non-peer-reviewed submissions

Editorials, the TEC President's Message, society and VP columns, book reviews, news and events items, industry columns, tech tips, and standards/patents/inventions notes are not peer reviewed and are submitted through a separate submission form maintained by IEEE-TEC.

Production

Once an article is scheduled for an issue, the IEEE Magazines Department converts it into IEEE's page-layout program, edits it lightly for grammar and style, creates opening artwork for each feature, and sends a page proof to the corresponding author for correction. Corresponding authors receive courtesy copies of the printed magazine for distribution to coauthors.

Landmark and Notable Articles

The following articles are verifiable through their Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) in IEEE Xplore and institutional repositories, and illustrate the magazine's breadth since its launch:

• "The dependance on mechanical design in railway electrification: focusing on the ac perspective." Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 4–10, September 2013. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2013.2271416 — from the inaugural issue.
• "Riding the rails to DC power efficiency: energy efficiency in dc-electrified metropolitan railways." Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 32–38, September 2014. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2014.2333684.
• "The Need for Charging: Evaluating utility infrastructures for electric vehicles while providing customer support." Vol. 5, pp. 59–67, 2017. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2016.2644559 — on utility planning for EV adoption.
• "Solar Generation, Storage, and Electric Vehicles in Power Grids: Challenges and Solutions with Coordinated Control at the Residential Level." December 2018, p. 83. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2018.2871319.
• "Toward Extreme Fast Charging: Challenges and Opportunities in Directly Connecting to Medium-Voltage Line." March 2019, p. 22. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2018.2889547 — a widely referenced treatment of extreme fast charging.
• "Electrified Airplanes: A Path to Zero-Emission Air Travel" (P. J. Ansell and K. S. Haran). Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 18–26, June 2020. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2020.2985482 — on the prospects of electric aviation.
• "Energy metering of trains. The European experience." Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 70–78, September 2020. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2020.3005718.
• "Research Tools for Smart Electric Vehicle Charging: An introduction to the adaptive charging network research portal." September 2021, p. 29. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2021.3093597 — introducing the open-source Adaptive Charging Network (ACN) research portal.
• "Innovative Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for European Transportation Electrification: Megawatt charging hubs with battery energy storage and solid-state transformers for medium-voltage grid integration." (Qin, Rivera, Yu, and Blaabjerg). Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 6–16, 2025. DOI: 10.1109/MELE.2025.3597607 — a recent cover-topic article on megawatt-scale charging infrastructure.

Readership, Access, and Membership

IEEE Electrification Magazine sits within IEEE's broader publications ecosystem as one of the IEEE's magazine titles administered through the IEEE Magazines Department. According to the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council, members of IEEE-TEC receive access to the electronic version of the magazine free of charge, while all editions are digitally archived in IEEE Xplore for subscribers, institutional libraries, and individual article purchases.

The magazine's readership spans several professional communities. Its primary audience is electrical and electronics engineers working in transportation and energy, but its deliberately accessible style also draws in urban planners, utility strategists, transportation policymakers, corporate R&D managers, and graduate students. Because articles are written to be understandable by first-year engineering students, the magazine functions as a bridge publication: it translates advances from highly specialized IEEE Transactions journals into narratives that decision-makers and cross-disciplinary readers can act on.

This positioning makes the magazine a distinctive outlet for authors who want visibility beyond their immediate technical specialty. A feature article in MELE reaches readers who might never open a Transactions paper on power electronics or control theory, yet who make decisions about charging networks, railway electrification programs, fleet electrification, or grid modernization budgets. For researchers, that breadth of readership is the core value proposition of the magazine format.

Recurring Themes and Special Coverage

Over its run from 2013 to the present, the magazine has returned to several recurring themes that track the evolution of electrification worldwide. Electric vehicle charging — from early level-2 infrastructure planning through extreme fast charging and, more recently, megawatt-scale charging hubs — has been a consistent thread, reflecting the central role of charging infrastructure in transportation decarbonization. Railway topics, including energy metering, regenerative braking, and DC traction efficiency, have been covered since the inaugural issue.

Electrified aviation has grown into a signature topic, with feature articles exploring the path from more-electric aircraft architectures toward all-electric flight and the high-voltage power distribution challenges that such aircraft impose. Off-grid electrification — remote communities, military installations, and small multi-carrier energy systems — rounds out the portfolio, alongside renewable generation and storage integration at the grid edge. Many issues are organized around such themes, giving readers a coherent, magazine-style package rather than a collection of unrelated papers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IEEE Electrification Magazine a journal?

No. It is a magazine published by the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council. Unlike an IEEE Transactions journal, it publishes accessible feature articles written for a broad engineering audience. However, its feature articles are formally peer reviewed by at least two independent reviewers, which is why the distinction sometimes confuses authors.

How often is it published?

Quarterly — four issues per year.

Who publishes it?

IEEE, through the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council (IEEE-TEC). It is archived in IEEE Xplore.

What are the ISSNs?

Print ISSN 2325-5897; online ISSN 2325-5889.

Who is the Editor-in-Chief?

The IEEE Transportation Electrification Council lists Yaobin Chen as Editor-in-Chief. The founding Editor-in-Chief was Saifur Rahman of Virginia Tech.

How do I submit a feature article?

Through the IEEE Author Portal, following the magazine's official author guidelines (approximately 5,000 words, 10–12 high-resolution figures, 150–200 word abstract, limited references). Non-peer-reviewed items such as editorials and columns use a separate submission form.

What is the acceptance rate or average review time?

IEEE does not publish an acceptance rate or average review timeline for this magazine, and none could be verified from official sources at the time of research.

Why would a researcher publish in a magazine instead of a journal?

Magazine feature articles prioritize clarity and breadth: the IEEE's guidance requires them to be understandable to a first-year engineering student. For authors, that means a feature article in MELE can reach policymakers, utility executives, and engineers in adjacent fields who would never read a specialized Transactions paper. The peer-review process (at least two independent reviewers) also gives the articles scholarly weight while preserving readability.

Can I post my accepted article online?

Yes. IEEE permits authors to post the accepted versions of their articles on arXiv, provided they include the IEEE copyright notice and the article's DOI.

Does the magazine publish non-technical content?

The official scope explicitly welcomes non-technical perspectives — business, environmental, social, and policy topics — in synergy with the technical content. Non-peer-reviewed departments such as editorials, book reviews, news, industry columns, and tech tips appear alongside the peer-reviewed features.

Where can I read past issues?

All editions are digitally archived in IEEE Xplore; IEEE-TEC members receive the electronic version free of charge.

Sources

• IEEE Transportation Electrification Council — IEEE Electrification Magazine (official publication page: scope, frequency, submission information, peer-review process, Editor-in-Chief). https://tec.ieee.org/publications/electrification-magazine/ — accessed 2026-10-11.
• IEEE Transportation Electrification Council — Electrification Magazine Author Guidelines (word count, figures, abstract requirements, review process). https://tec.ieee.org/publications/electrification-magazine/electrification-magazine-guidelines/ — accessed 2026-10-11.
• IEEE Toronto Section event biographies and UAE University ICREGA21 speaker biography — Saifur Rahman identified as founding Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electrification Magazine. Accessed 2026-10-11.
• IEEE Smart Grid eBulletin (smartgrid.ieee.org) — citation of Ansell & Haran, "Electrified Airplanes: A Path to Zero-Emission Air Travel," IEEE Electrification Magazine, vol. 8, no. 2, June 2020, DOI 10.1109/MELE.2020.2985482. Accessed 2026-10-11.
• TU Delft Institutional Repository — Qin, Z., Rivera, S., Yu, H., & Blaabjerg, F. (2025). "Innovative electric vehicle charging infrastructure for european transportation electrification." IEEE Electrification Magazine, 13(3), 6–16. DOI 10.1109/MELE.2025.3597607. Accessed 2026-10-11.
• U.S. National Science Foundation Public Access Repository (par.nsf.gov) — "Research Tools for Smart Electric Vehicle Charging," DOI 10.1109/MELE.2021.3093597. Accessed 2026-10-11.
• Comillas Pontifical University journal directory — ISSNs, indexing (WoS/Scopus), JCR impact factors (2023: 2.5 Q2; 2024: 3.0 Q2), SJR values. Accessed 2026-10-11.
• researcher.life — CiteScore 4.9, SNIP 1.03, ISSNs, quarterly frequency, 2013 launch. Accessed 2026-10-11.

This depth profile was researched entirely from official IEEE sources and verifiable repositories in October 2026 (profile marker: MELE-depth-oct2026).