About IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics

The IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (abbreviated IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform., commonly shortened to TII) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes research bridging the gap between theoretical advances in informatics and their practical application in industrial environments. Established in 2005, it is one of the flagship periodicals of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) and is published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The journal sits at the intersection of computing, communications, control, and automation, serving researchers and engineers who develop the information technologies behind modern factories, smart grids, intelligent transportation, robotics, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Over two decades of continuous publication, the journal has grown from a niche outlet on factory automation into one of the most cited journals in industrial engineering and applied computer science. The IEEE Industrial Electronics Society reports that the journal receives on the order of 7,000 manuscript submissions per year, and every published article passes through a double-blind peer review process with a minimum of two independent reviewers and plagiarism screening before acceptance.

Journal at a Glance

History

The IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics was launched in 2005 as a new periodical of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, created to give the emerging discipline of industrial informatics a dedicated, high-quality archival venue. Before its founding, research on informatics in industrial settings — factory automation software, networked control systems, industrial data acquisition — was scattered across control, computing, and communications journals. The Transactions brought that research together under one roof, with an explicit mandate to connect theory with industrial practice.

The founding Editor-in-Chief was George A. Fodor of ABB Automation Technologies in Sweden, who led the journal through its inaugural year in 2005. He was followed by Prof. Richard Zurawski (ISA Group, USA), who served as Editor-in-Chief from 2007 to 2010. The IES maintains an official roster of past Editors-in-Chief that also records Prof. Kim F. Man (City University of Hong Kong) as Editor-in-Chief from 2014 to 2016 and Prof. Ren C. Luo (National Taiwan University, Taiwan) from 2016 to 2023. The official IES roster does not list Editors-in-Chief for every intervening year, so the holders of the office in 2006 and 2011–2013 are not documented there, and this profile does not guess at them.

The journal’s growth mirrored the rise of the Industrial Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and cyber-physical systems in the 2010s. Publication cadence expanded accordingly: the journal was published bi-monthly (six issues per year, appearing in February, April, June, August, October, and December) through 2017, and it moved to a monthly schedule of twelve issues per year beginning in 2018, a cadence it has kept ever since. In high-volume periods the editors have occasionally split months into two parts (for example, February and March 2024 each appeared in two parts).

A major editorial transition occurred in 2023, when Prof. Gerhard P. Hancke of the University of Pretoria, South Africa — who had served as Co-Editor-in-Chief from 2019 to 2023 — became Editor-in-Chief following Ren C. Luo’s term. The IES announced in 2025 that Hancke had been appointed to a second three-year term as Editor-in-Chief for 2026–2028, and that Prof. Dong Yue of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications would serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief for the same period, likewise a second term.

In February 2025, the journal modernized its submission infrastructure: all new manuscripts must now be entered through the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Author Portal Submission Site (launched 24 February 2025), which requires an IEEE account. Manuscripts already under review continued their peer-review life cycle in ScholarOne Manuscript Central, but no new submissions are taken there. In the same period the journal tightened its page limits, announcing that overlength page charges would be strictly enforced for submissions made from 1 January 2025 onward.

Publisher and Sponsoring Society

The journal is published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization. Its sponsoring and governing society is the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), which describes the Transactions on Industrial Informatics as a flagship journal of the society. Editorial appointments, publication policy, and the journal’s author guidelines are administered through the IES periodicals program, and articles are distributed and archived through the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

A note on conflicting metadata: several third-party journal directories list the “IEEE Computer Society” as this journal’s publisher. The journal’s own official pages identify the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society as the sponsoring society and IEEE as the publisher, and that is the attribution used throughout this profile. Authors and librarians should treat the Computer Society listing as a database error.

Aims and Scope

The journal describes itself as multidisciplinary: it publishes technical papers that unite informatics theory with industrial practice, focusing on the use of information in intelligent, distributed, and agile industrial automation and control systems. In practical terms, TII is the journal where computer science and information technology meet the factory floor — covering intelligent control, industrial communications, automation software, and data-driven methods as they are applied to real industrial systems.

The official scope statement highlights topics including knowledge-based and AI-enhanced automation, intelligent computer control systems, flexible and collaborative manufacturing, industrial informatics aspects of software-defined vehicles and robotics, computer vision, industrial cyber-physical systems and the industrial Internet of Things, real-time and networked embedded systems, security in industrial processes, industrial communications, systems interoperability, and human–machine interaction.

The IES organizes editorial coverage into ten technical areas:

• Security/Safety
• Fault Detection/Maintenance
• Intelligence
• Monitoring/Control
• Energy/Power
• Networking
• Software
• Signal Processing
• Computer Vision
• Vertical Applications

The journal also publishes a finer list of subject categories that includes intelligent computer control systems, flexible and collaborative intelligent manufacturing systems, industrial communications and networked embedded systems, industrial informatics aspects in software-defined vehicles and robotics, computer vision systems and their industrial applications, industrial smart grids and power/energy systems, ground transportation systems, industrial cyber-physical systems, industrial IoT systems, real-time control and communication systems, AI-enhanced intelligent systems and their industrial applications, and signal processing and analysis.

One editorial boundary is worth stressing because it trips up many first-time submitters: TII does not accept informatics papers on their own merits — only those with a genuine industrial application. A new algorithm demonstrated on a toy example will not survive triage; the journal expects the industrial problem, industrial data, or industrial deployment to be central to the contribution. The official journal page illustrates this distinction with a worked example, and prospective authors are well advised to study it before writing.

Article Types and Page Limits

The journal publishes three categories of manuscript, with page limits updated for all new submissions from 1 January 2025 and strictly enforced:

Overlength page charges are $250 per page, or $200 per page for IEEE Industrial Electronics Society members — a meaningful incentive for IES membership. Review (survey) papers require the Editor-in-Chief’s special permission before submission. The journal no longer publishes special sections, according to the current official journal page — although themed special sections were a prominent feature of the journal through 2022, covering topics such as the industrial Internet of Things, Industry 5.0, digital twinning, federated learning, blockchain for industrial IoT, 5G-enabled industrial networks, edge computing, and AI for smart manufacturing.

Editorial Leadership

The current Editor-in-Chief is Prof. Gerhard P. Hancke of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, serving a second three-year term covering 2026–2028. Hancke holds B.Sc., B.Eng., and M.Eng. degrees from the University of Stellenbosch and a D.Eng. from the University of Pretoria. He is an IEEE Fellow, elevated for his contributions to wireless sensor networks, and is internationally recognized as a pioneer of industrial wireless sensor network (IWSN) research. He initiated and co-edited the first special sections on industrial wireless sensor networks in both the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2009) and the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (2013), and he received the journal’s Best Paper Award for 2012 in the IWSN area. He also holds an appointment with the College for Automation at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China.

The current Co-Editor-in-Chief is Prof. Dong Yue of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, likewise serving a second three-year term for 2026–2028.

Before becoming Editor-in-Chief, Hancke served as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal from 2019 to 2023. Other past Co-Editors-in-Chief listed by the IES include Prof. Qing-Long Han (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, 2022–2023), Prof. Jinhu Lu (Beihang University, China, 2019–2022), Prof. Mo-Yuen Chow (North Carolina State University, USA, 2013–2019), Prof. Marco Liserre (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany, 2013–2016), and Prof. Kim F. Man (City University of Hong Kong, 2013).

The journal is supported by a large international editorial board of associate editors drawn from universities, research institutes, and industry across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, covering the journal’s ten technical areas.

Peer Review and Submission Process

TII runs a double-blind peer review process: the identities of the reviewers are not known to the authors, and the identities of the authors are not known to the reviewers. Every published article is reviewed by a minimum of two independent reviewers, and articles are screened for plagiarism before acceptance. The journal provides an official LaTeX and Word article template, separate workflows for new manuscripts, revised manuscripts (minor and major revisions), and final versions of accepted manuscripts, and guidance on the use of supplementary material.

Submission today happens through the IEEE Author Portal: the switch from ScholarOne Manuscript Central took effect for new submissions on 24 February 2025. Authors need an IEEE account to use the portal (this is not the same as an old ScholarOne account). Manuscripts submitted before the cutover finished their peer-review life cycle in ScholarOne.

One practical requirement: ORCID is required for all authors on IES periodicals, including TII. Authors must also confirm that the work is original, has not been published elsewhere, and is not under review at another venue; IEEE’s standard publication ethics and intellectual-property guidelines apply throughout.

Indexing and Metrics

The journal is indexed in the major citation databases: IEEE Xplore (its primary full-text platform, with monthly issues browsable from 2005 onward), the Web of Science Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) — confirmed by IEEE’s own title list — and Scopus, which underpins the journal’s CiteScore, SJR, and SNIP values. Its placement in the top quartile (Q1) across its Scopus subject categories — Computer Science Applications, Control and Systems Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Information Systems — is consistently reported.

On citation metrics, an honest note is required: IEEE does not publish an official metrics dashboard for the journal, and the Journal Citation Reports are paywalled, so current figures must be read from third-party aggregators, which do not always agree. What is firmly established from an official IEEE source: IEEE’s November 2023 title list reports an Impact Factor of 12.3 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 11.9 (Q1, SCIE) — figures reflecting the 2022 edition of the Journal Citation Reports. For more recent editions, aggregators report varying values (for example, roughly 9.8–9.9 for the JCR 2025 edition released in June 2026, and CiteScore values around 21–22 depending on the source and edition). Readers should verify the current Impact Factor directly in Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports rather than relying on any single aggregator.

The longer trajectory is clear enough: like many journals, TII rode a citation surge in the early 2020s (peaking with the 12.3 figure in the 2022 JCR) and has since settled in the high single digits to around 10 — still an elite figure for an engineering journal. The journal’s relatively high CiteScore reflects its strong standing across several fast-citing computer-science and automation categories.

Figures this profile does not report as fact because they are not officially published: the journal’s acceptance rate and its average time from submission to first decision. Any acceptance-rate or review-speed numbers found online are third-party estimates and should be treated as such.

Publication Costs

TII is a hybrid journal: authors choose the traditional subscription route or the open-access route. Under the traditional route, the published article is available to subscribers through IEEE Xplore and no article-processing charge is due. Under the open-access route, the author pays a fee upon acceptance and the article becomes freely available to all.

The journal-specific open-access fee is not officially published on the IES journal page; authors should confirm the current amount in the IEEE Author Portal or on IEEE’s official open-access pages before budgeting. Separately and officially documented are the overlength page charges: $250 per excess page ($200 per page for IES members), applied to final manuscripts that exceed the page limits regardless of the chosen access model.

Landmark Papers

With thousands of published articles and well over a hundred thousand citations accumulated, TII’s influence is best illustrated by the survey and agenda-setting papers that defined subfields of industrial informatics. The following landmark papers were verified against Crossref records (all published in the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics; DOIs resolve via doi.org):

• “Internet of Things in Industries: A Survey” — Li Da Xu, Wu He, and Shancang Li, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 2233–2243, November 2014. DOI: 10.1109/TII.2014.2300753. Widely regarded as the landmark industrial-IoT survey, systematically reviewing IoT enabling technologies, industrial applications, and research trends at the moment the industrial Internet of Things was taking shape. It is among the most cited papers ever published in the journal.
• “Internet of Things for Enterprise Systems of Modern Manufacturing” — Zhuming Bi, Li Da Xu, and Chengen Wang, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 1537–1546, May 2014. DOI: 10.1109/TII.2014.2300338. An early and highly cited treatment of how IoT technologies integrate with enterprise systems in modern manufacturing environments.
• “Integration of Distributed Enterprise Applications: A Survey” — Wu He and Li Da Xu, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 35–42, February 2014. DOI: 10.1109/TII.2012.2189221. A foundational survey on integrating distributed enterprise applications, one of the journal’s most cited early-2010s papers.
• “Enterprise Systems: State-of-the-Art and Future Trends” — Li Da Xu, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 630–640, November 2011. DOI: 10.1109/TII.2011.2167156. A state-of-the-art review of enterprise systems that helped define the journal’s research agenda in its first decade.

The pattern is instructive for prospective authors: TII’s most cited works are typically comprehensive, timely surveys on topics such as industrial IoT, enterprise systems, smart grids, and intelligent manufacturing — areas that sit squarely in the journal’s industrial-application remit. Authors considering a survey paper should note, however, that state-of-the-art papers require special permission from the Editor-in-Chief before submission.

Submission Checklist for Authors

1. Scope fit first: the paper must address an industrial application of informatics — not informatics in the abstract. Study the journal’s industrial-application criterion on the official IES page before writing.
2. Length: 10 pages maximum for new regular-paper submissions (12 for the final version), 12 for surveys with EIC permission (14 final), 4 for letters (6 final). Limits are strictly enforced and excess pages cost $250 each ($200 for IES members).
3. ORCID: every author needs an ORCID identifier.
4. Originality: the work must be unpublished and not under review elsewhere; plagiarism screening occurs before acceptance.
5. Formatting: IEEE two-column format using the official LaTeX or Word template; supplementary material is supported.
6. Submission route: all new manuscripts go through the IEEE Author Portal (an IEEE account is required); ScholarOne is no longer used for new submissions.
7. Double-blind discipline: remove author-identifying information, first-person self-citations, and acknowledgements from the review manuscript.
8. No special sections: the journal no longer publishes special sections, so unsolicited themed-issue proposals are unlikely to find traction.
9. Budget honestly: confirm the current open-access fee in the Author Portal if you plan the OA route, and budget for possible overlength charges.
10. Plan for time: with thousands of submissions a year and double-blind review by at least two reviewers, first decisions take months; build revision cycles into project timelines.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Impact Factor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics?
   IEEE’s November 2023 title list (reflecting the 2022 Journal Citation Reports) reports an Impact Factor of 12.3 with a 5-year Impact Factor of 11.9, Q1 in SCIE. More recent JCR editions are reported by third-party aggregators at varying values (roughly 9.8–9.9 for the edition released in June 2026); because aggregators disagree, verify the current figure directly in Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports.
2. When was the journal founded?
   2005. The journal has published continuously from Volume 1 (2005) to the present.
3. Who is the current Editor-in-Chief?
   Prof. Gerhard P. Hancke (University of Pretoria, South Africa), serving a second three-year term from 2026 to 2028. Prof. Dong Yue (Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China) is Co-Editor-in-Chief for the same term.
4. What are the journal’s ISSNs?
   Print ISSN 1551-3203; electronic ISSN 1941-0050.
5. How often is the journal published?
   Monthly since 2018 (twelve issues per year). It was published bi-monthly from 2015 through 2017.
6. Is the journal open access?
   It is a hybrid journal: subscription by default, with an optional author-pays open-access route. The journal-specific open-access fee is not officially published on the IES journal page — confirm the current amount in the IEEE Author Portal before budgeting.
7. What is the acceptance rate?
   Not officially published. IEEE does not disclose acceptance statistics for this journal, and any figure found online is a third-party estimate that should not be relied on.
8. How long does peer review take?
   Not officially published. IEEE does not disclose average review times for this journal; any timeline found online is anecdotal or a third-party estimate.
9. How do I submit a manuscript?
   Through the IEEE Author Portal — all new submissions since 24 February 2025 go there, and an IEEE account is required. ScholarOne Manuscript Central is no longer used for new submissions.
10. Is peer review double-blind?
    Yes. Reviewer identities are hidden from authors and author identities from reviewers, with a minimum of two independent reviewers per article and plagiarism screening before acceptance.
11. What are the page limits?
    Regular papers: 10 pages for new submissions, 12 for the final version (strictly enforced). Surveys with EIC permission: 12 new, 14 final. Letters: 4 new, 6 final. Overlength charges are $250 per page ($200 for IES members).
12. Does the journal accept pure theory or algorithm papers?
    No — not without a genuine industrial application. The journal explicitly accepts only informatics work with an industrial application, so a real industrial problem, dataset, or deployment is expected.
13. Is an ORCID required?
    Yes. ORCID is required for all authors on IES periodicals, including TII.
14. Does TII still publish special issues or special sections?
    No. The journal states that it no longer publishes special sections, although themed special sections were a major feature through 2022.
15. Where is the journal indexed?
    IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and the Web of Science Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). It sits in Q1 of its Scopus subject categories (Computer Science Applications; Control and Systems Engineering; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Information Systems).
16. Who publishes the journal?
    The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), with the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) as the sponsoring society. Some third-party directories erroneously list the IEEE Computer Society — the IES attribution is the official one.

Editorial note: This profile was researched on 11 October 2026 from the official IEEE Industrial Electronics Society journal pages, official IES news announcements, IEEE’s published title list, and Crossref bibliographic records. Editorial boards, fees, page limits, and citation metrics change over time; always verify current details on the official Information for Authors page before submitting. Figures drawn from secondary aggregators are approximate and vary between databases — where sources conflicted or IEEE publishes no official figure, this profile says so instead of guessing.