IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence

About IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence

About IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence

IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence (commonly abbreviated TETCI) is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS). Launched in January 2017, it is the youngest of the IEEE CIS family of journals, and it was created with a deliberately different mission from its older siblings: rather than consolidating established research streams, TETCI exists to capture what comes next.

Where the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems covers the core of neural and learning research, the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems covers fuzzy theory and systems, and the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation covers evolutionary algorithms, TETCI is the home for computational intelligence ideas that do not yet fit comfortably into any of those boxes. Its editorial charter states that the journal publishes original articles on emerging aspects of computational intelligence, including theory, applications, and surveys — with particular emphasis on demonstrably novel techniques not already covered by the other IEEE CIS journals.

That positioning has proved timely. The journal launched at the height of the deep learning wave and has since ridden successive waves of interest in neural architecture search, interpretability, federated learning, brain–computer interfaces, computational neuroscience, artificial life, and the ethics and robustness of machine intelligence. Within less than a decade it became a Q1 journal in all four of its SCImago subject categories, with an H-index of 65 (SCImago, 2025) and a Journal Impact Factor reported around 8.0 for the 2024 year.

TETCI is an electronic-only publication — there is no print edition — and it publishes six issues per year. Manuscripts are handled under a double-anonymous review policy: authors must remove any identifying information from their submission files, a policy introduced to strengthen the fairness of peer review.

History of the Journal

The launch (2016–2017)

TETCI's history begins in 2016, when the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society decided to create a new transactions-level outlet dedicated to emerging topics. In the first half of 2016 the society formed an ad hoc search committee and issued a public call for nominations and applications for the position of inaugural Editor-in-Chief, with the new journal scheduled to launch in January 2017 and its first issue expected early that year.

The call made the society's ambition explicit: the new transactions would be financially sponsored by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and would publish original articles on the rising aspects of computational intelligence — theory, applications, and surveys. The first editor-in-chief to lead the journal in its launch era was Yew-Soon Ong of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Why a new journal was needed

The rationale for TETCI was structural. By 2016, computational intelligence was expanding faster than the scope of the existing CIS journals could comfortably absorb. Researchers were working on brain-inspired computing paradigms, artificial endocrine and hormone networks, glial cell networks, artificial life, ambient intelligence, cultural learning, and non-fuzzy computing with words — areas with active communities but no natural transactions home. TETCI was designed to be that home: a venue that expands the scope of the field beyond topics already covered by other IEEE CIS journals, opening opportunities for applying new computational intelligence tools to complex real-world problems.

Editorial succession and growth

As the journal matured, its editorial leadership turned over in the usual IEEE cycle. In 2023, Professor Yiu-ming Cheung, Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Hong Kong Baptist University, was appointed Editor-in-Chief of TETCI for the 2023–2024 term, and he remains the editor-in-chief listed on the IEEE CIS editorial pages. His research focuses on machine learning and visual computing and their applications in data science, multi-objective optimization, and information security.

The journal's metrics tell a story of rapid ascent. Early journal-level indicators were modest — the 2018 impact factor was reported around 3.6 — but citation impact climbed steadily: approximately 5.8 in 2019, 7.4 in 2020, 4.3 in 2021, 6.4 in 2022, and roughly 8.0 for 2024 (secondary aggregators report figures in the 8.0–8.6 range for recent years; see the Metrics section for important sourcing caveats). The journal is now firmly established as a Q1 venue in artificial intelligence, computational mathematics, computer science applications, and control and optimization.

Aims & Scope

The journal's official scope, published by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, is as follows: TETCI publishes original articles on emerging aspects of computational intelligence, including theory, applications, and surveys. It is an electronic-only publication, publishing six issues per year.

The society explicitly encourages authors to submit manuscripts on any emerging topic in computational intelligence, with particular emphasis on demonstrably novel techniques not covered by other IEEE CIS journals. Illustrative examples given by the society include:

• Glial cell networks, artificial endocrine networks, and artificial hormone networks
• Computational neuroscience and brain–computer interfaces
• Ambient intelligence and artificial life
• Cultural learning and social reasoning
• Non-fuzzy computing with words
• Computational intelligence for the Internet of Things and smart-X technologies
• Contemporary challenges: interpretability, privacy and security, adversarial learning and robustness, generalizable learning and optimization, and the ethical dimensions of machine intelligence

The journal publishes survey papers, full papers, and short papers. Survey papers are a particular strength of the journal — several of its most-cited articles are comprehensive surveys (see Landmark Papers below) — which reflects the journal's role as a place where fast-moving subfields get their first authoritative synthesis.

A useful way to think about scope fit: if your manuscript could equally be submitted to IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, or IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation without stretching, it may belong in one of those journals. TETCI is for work that is emerging — novel directions, cross-boundary topics, and contemporary challenges that the established transactions do not yet cover.

Editorial Leadership

The Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, as listed on the IEEE CIS editorial board pages, is Prof. Yiu-ming Cheung of the Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong — appointed to the role for the 2023–2024 term. The journal's editorial board comprises associate editors covering the breadth of computational intelligence, from evolutionary computation and neural networks to fuzzy systems and emerging application domains.

The launch-era editor-in-chief was Prof. Yew-Soon Ong (Nanyang Technological University), who led the journal through its first issue in early 2017 and its formative years.

An important editorial fact for prospective authors: IEEE TETCI has switched to a double-anonymous review policy. Authors must exclude any author-identifying information from their PDF submissions. This applies to names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and any self-referential phrasing that could identify the authors during review. Manuscripts that fail to anonymize will not proceed normally through review.

Key Facts

Metrics & Indexing

Journal Impact Factor — read the fine print

TETCI's impact factor has grown rapidly, which is why you will see strikingly different numbers quoted across the web. The journal's own IEEE Xplore page notes that the journal bibliometrics displayed there are based on Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports 2024, released in June 2025 — that is the authoritative figure, and readers should consult IEEE Xplore or the JCR directly for the exact official value.

Secondary aggregators currently report figures in a range: SciJournal reports an impact factor of 8.040 for 2024 (and an early, unverified estimate of 8.580 for 2025); other aggregators cite figures between 6.0 and 6.5 for the 2024–25 window. These aggregator figures are reproduced from publisher and database sources and can lag or differ from the official JCR release. Earlier officially-adjacent figures include a 2021 impact factor of 4.851, cited in the Hong Kong Baptist University announcement of Prof. Cheung's appointment.

The honest bottom line: TETCI is a high-impact Q1 journal in computational intelligence, and its impact factor sits in the high single digits as of the most recent complete JCR year — but for grant applications, promotion dossiers, or any formal purpose, verify the exact figure from Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports or IEEE Xplore rather than from aggregator sites.

SCImago and Scopus metrics

SCImago (based on Scopus data) places TETCI in the first quartile (Q1) in all four of its tracked categories: Artificial Intelligence, Computational Mathematics, Computer Science Applications, and Control and Optimization. The journal's SJR for 2025 is 1.653 and its H-index is 65 (SCImago, 2025). OpenAlex, a separate bibliographic source, records 1,821 works and over 32,000 citations for the journal, with an OpenAlex-derived H-index of 75 — note that OpenAlex metrics are computed differently from SCImago and JCR metrics and are not interchangeable with them.

Indexing

TETCI is indexed in the major scholarly databases, including Scopus and Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded), and its articles appear on IEEE Xplore, the IEEE's digital library. Its Scopus coverage history spans 2017 to the present. The journal's topics in published research, as classified by OpenAlex, cluster around neural networks and applications, metaheuristic and multi-objective optimization algorithms, big data, anomaly detection, and face and expression recognition.

Open Access & APC

IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence is a hybrid journal: it is primarily subscription-based, but authors can choose to make individual articles open access by paying an article processing charge (APC). OpenAlex metadata does not flag the journal as fully open access.

The APC list price reported for the journal by OpenAlex (which sources this from the Directory of Open Access Journals) is US$2,645. This is consistent with the standard IEEE open access article processing charge applied across many IEEE transactions titles. Important caveats:

• This figure is a reported list price, not a fee quotation. IEEE APCs can change, and the amount actually invoiced may depend on IEEE membership status, institutional open access agreements, applicable taxes, and waiver or discount eligibility.
• Authors should confirm current charges directly with IEEE before budgeting.
• Authors whose funders mandate open access (for example under Plan S or US federal public-access policies) should check whether the hybrid OA option satisfies their funder's requirements, or whether green open access via an accepted-manuscript deposit is permitted under IEEE's sharing policies.

Because TETCI is electronic-only, there are no print-related page charges of the traditional kind, but IEEE journals do have their own policies on overlength page charges and color figures; authors should consult the current IEEE author guidelines rather than relying on summaries.

Submission Guidance

Before you submit

TETCI's defining editorial question is novelty of direction. The journal wants manuscripts on emerging topics — demonstrably novel techniques and contemporary challenges not covered by the other IEEE CIS journals. Before submitting, ask:

• Is the topic genuinely emerging, or is it a mature research stream? Mature streams belong in the established transactions.
• Does the manuscript fit the official scope (theory, applications, surveys of emerging CI topics)? Off-scope manuscripts are desk-rejected quickly.
• Is this a survey, full paper, or short paper? Choose the article type deliberately and meet its expectations.

Double-anonymous review

TETCI operates under a double-anonymous review policy. Remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, funding statements that identify the group, and self-citations phrased as "our previous work." Failure to anonymize is one of the most common preventable reasons for a manuscript being returned without review.

Formatting and submission

Manuscripts should follow IEEE formatting requirements (IEEEtran LaTeX class or the IEEE Word template), with references in IEEE numbered style. Submit through the official online submission system linked from the journal's IEEE CIS page and IEEE Xplore listing. Ensure figures are legible at column width, equations are numbered, and the manuscript clearly states its contribution relative to existing literature.

What IEEE does not publish

IEEE does not publish journal-level acceptance rates or official review timelines for TETCI, and any third-party site quoting an acceptance rate or a "typical review time" for this journal is speculating. Expect a rigorous multi-round review process typical of IEEE transactions; survey papers in particular are held to high standards of completeness and critical synthesis.

Landmark Papers

The papers below are among the most influential articles published in TETCI, selected from citation aggregators and the journal's own featured content. DOIs are given only where verified against publisher or institutional records — never invented.

• "A Survey on Neural Network Interpretability" — Yu Zhang, Peter Tiňo, Ales Leonardis, and Ke Tang, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 726–742, 2021. DOI: 10.1109/TETCI.2021.3100641. The journal's single most-cited paper (over 560 citations in aggregator counts), this survey systematized the then-fragmented literature on interpreting neural networks — a landmark that helped define interpretability as a core TETCI theme.
• "Learning Automata Based Competition Scheme to Train Deep Neural Networks" — vol. 4, pp. 151–158 (early issue). DOI: 10.1109/tetci.2018.2868474. An early-volume paper exemplifying the journal's appetite for unconventional learning paradigms — using learning automata to organize competition among network components during training.
• "A Survey on Data-Driven Runoff Forecasting Models Based on Neural Networks" — vol. 7, pp. 1083–1097. DOI: 10.1109/tetci.2023.3259434. A representative example of TETCI's applied side: bringing modern neural-network methodology to a domain-science forecasting problem.
• "Evolutionary Neural Architecture Search for Transferable Networks" — vol. 9, pp. 1556–1568. DOI: 10.1109/tetci.2024.3427763. Sits at the intersection of two of the journal's signature themes — evolutionary computation and deep learning — addressing transferability in automatically designed architectures.
• "Evolutionary Dual-ensemble Class Imbalance Learning for Human Activity Recognition" — Y. Guo, Y. Chu, N. Cui, J. Cheng, and L. Ma, 2021. DOI: 10.1109/TETCI.2021.3079966. Combines evolutionary ensemble methods with a real-world sensing application, typical of the journal's theory-plus-application profile.

Also noteworthy is the journal's officially featured paper "Skeletal Video Anomaly Detection Using Deep Learning: Survey, Challenges, and Future Directions" by Pratik K. Mishra, Alex Mihailidis, and Shehroz S. Khan (vol. 8, no. 2, April 2024; IEEE Xplore document 10453042) — highlighted by IEEE CIS itself for tackling video anomaly detection with privacy-preserving skeletal representations, an approach motivated by the privacy concerns of identifiable facial video in hospitals and community settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ISSN of IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence?

The print ISSN is 2471-285X and the electronic ISSN is 2471-2868.

Who publishes IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence?

The IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), United States.

When was TETCI founded?

The journal was launched in January 2017, with its first issue published early in 2017. The inaugural editor-in-chief search was conducted in the first half of 2016.

How often is TETCI published?

Bimonthly — six issues per year. It is an electronic-only publication with no print edition.

Who is the current editor-in-chief?

Prof. Yiu-ming Cheung of Hong Kong Baptist University, appointed for the 2023–2024 term and listed as editor-in-chief on the IEEE CIS editorial pages. The launch-era editor-in-chief was Prof. Yew-Soon Ong of Nanyang Technological University.

What is TETCI's impact factor?

The authoritative figure is the one based on Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports 2024 (released June 2025), as displayed on IEEE Xplore. Secondary aggregators report figures in the range of approximately 6.0 to 8.6 for recent years; these aggregator figures should not be used for formal purposes — verify against the JCR or IEEE Xplore.

Is TETCI open access?

TETCI is a hybrid journal: subscription-based with an optional paid open access route for individual articles. The reported APC list price is US$2,645 (confirm current charges with IEEE). It is not a fully open access journal.

Is TETCI peer-reviewed, and what review model does it use?

Yes — it is a peer-reviewed journal using double-anonymous review. Authors must remove all identifying information from their submission files.

What article types does TETCI publish?

Survey papers, full papers, and short papers — on emerging aspects of computational intelligence, including theory, applications, and surveys.

Where do I submit a manuscript to TETCI?

Through the official online submission system linked from the journal's IEEE CIS page (cis.ieee.org/publications/t-emerging-topics-in-ci) and its IEEE Xplore listing.

What topics fit TETCI's scope best?

Emerging and cross-boundary topics in computational intelligence not already covered by the other IEEE CIS journals — for example computational neuroscience, brain–computer interfaces, artificial life, ambient intelligence, IoT and smart-X applications, interpretability, adversarial robustness, privacy-preserving learning, and the ethics of machine intelligence.