Guidelines for authors

We recommend the Capitalize My Title  online tool. The default APA style should be alright.
For more detailed styling rules, the IEEE Journal Editorial Style Manual for Authors and the IEEE Digital Pages Style Guide are good sources.

• Word works well with SVG, EMF, WMF.
• LaTeX should work with TikZ, EPS, PDF, PNG.

We recommend obtaining and inserting your graphics in a vector format (SVG or other supported format).
If you use graphics generated by an application, set it to export SVG, or EMF/WMF/PNG/TIF/BMP at the highest quality. Avoid JPG, it is a lossy format.
If you take screenshots, save them as PNG/TIF/BMP, not as JPG.

Creating simple, quick, high quality diagrams online:

• Word: built-in, but there are other solutions.
• Mermaid: you could draw/write the diagrams in Mermaid using a free online Mermaid tool, then export in SVG/PNG format. Start with one of the templates they offer. Tools that we tested:
  • Mermaid Chart (recommended, needs signup; the Export button is on the top right; set transparent background before exporting)
  • Mermaid Live (export is under Actions, bottom left)
  • Mermaid Flow (only medium quality PNG in the free tier, SVG should be fine; the Export button is on the left vertical bar; set transparent background before exporting)
• TikZ: LaTeX/Overleaf has support for TikZ, a powerful syntax for structured graphics, without conversion to lossy bitmaps. You could use online tools to draw/write your diagrams:
  • TikzMaker (recommended)
  • CircuiTikZ Designer (optimized for circuits)
  • TikZ Diagram Generator
  • Tikz online editor
  • TikZ AI Generator
  • Overleaf help about TikZ.

Creating complex, high quality diagrams online: you can quickly create them for free online (use their templates), then download them in SVG format (importable into Word) or high quality PNG. Some sites we tested:

• Lucid (signup needed). Get a high quality PNG by zooming in and then exporting the drawing at the current scale).
• Draw.io (export from File menu > Export As..., and then in the second dialog, at Where choose Download). The templates appear if you start a File > New diagram.

Creating advanced vector graphics, locally - use a professional application, capable of exporting in SVG/EMF/WMF (for Word), PNG (for LaTeX):

• Inkscape (free; SVG is its native format)
• Adobe Illustrator (paid)
• CorelDRAW (paid)

If you cannot get the images in vector format, consider:

• saving your screenshots and images only as PNG, instead of JPG
• if you are using Word, then Word > File > Options > Advanced > Image Size and Quality > Do not compress images in file, and then insert the images into your document
• when creating the PDF, disable image downsampling, also disable image compression or at least use ZIP compression, "lossless" compression, or JPEG2000 compression on "maximum" quality.

After you inserted the image into the Word document, you can crop it (pull its margins inwards to hide some parts, or pull them outwards to leave more space around the image or show parts of the image that are otherwise hidden, due to importing artifacts: Word > click on the picture > Picture Format > Size > Crop).

The template describes steps for adding multiple authors. If that does not work, make the authors section one column, insert a table with invisible border (but go into the table and activate Word > Layout > View Gridlines) and multiple cells, then move the author details into the cells and use the invisible table cells for alignment.

Please balance the two text columns at the end of the document (usually, the references list), so that they take less space and have better readability.
If you are using Word:

• click at the end of the columns you want to balance;
• go to Word > Layout > Breaks > Section Breaks > Continuous.

If you are using LaTeX/Overleaf:

• at the beginning among the other imported packages, add "\usepackage{balance}"
• at the end before "\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}" or "\bibliography{references}", add "\balance"