Proper referencing of prior art

Abstract

In September 1999, this author published an editorial (ibid., vol. 46, no. 9, p. 1817, Sep. 1999) in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (T-ED) emphasizing the need for authors to pay special attention while referencing previously published related information. As mentioned at that time, omitting related work is not only unfair to researcher(s) who have made earlier contributions to the field but it also gives a distorted view of the topic to the reader. More importantly, it demonstrates an author??s lack of knowledge of prior art in their area of research. Hence, there may be significant room for improvement in the technical quality of the manuscript. Since then, we have continually sensitized the authors to this important issue before adopting the following measures. Every year, the Electron Devices Society (EDS) confers its prestigious Paul Rappaport and the more recent George Smith (2002) Awards for best papers published in our flagship publications IEEE T-ED and IEEE Electron Device Letters (EDL), respectively. To reward proper citation philosophy in EDS publications, we have now instituted clear guidelines to take this factor into account in the paper selection process for these awards. Also, we have tightened up the manuscript review process for both T-ED and EDL to make incomplete citations as grounds for rejection.