IEEE Xplore is a digital library providing full text access to the world's highest quality technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics. IEEE Xplore contains full text documents from IEEE journals, transactions, magazines, letters, conference proceedings, standards, and IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) publications.

• IEEE journals, transactions, letters, and magazines from 1988 with select content back to 1913
• IEEE conference proceedings from 1988 with select content back to 1953
• IEEE standards from 1948
• IET journals, letters, and magazines from 1988 with select content back to 1965
• IET conference proceedings from 1988
• IEEE books from 1974

Please note that IET is the new name of the IEE. Titles of IEE publications will slowly migrate to the new IET name over time, magazines first, then journals. For more information about IET, go to www.theiet.org.

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Some articles in IEEE Xplore contain an external file such as multimedia or graphics.

    •Multimedia Example 1: IEEE Periodicals
    •Multimedia Example 2: IEEE Conference Proceedings

IEEE Xplore also includes ancillary material from the printed publication such as letters to the editor, editorial boards, and calls for papers. Starting with 2004 published IEEE periodicals, links appear in search results and the issue's tables of contents for this ancillary material.

Note: Advertisements from the print publication are not yet included online.

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IEEE Xplore utilizes cookies, small files that stay on your computer, so that the system remembers who you are and your personal preferences. In this system, cookies are used to monitor simultaneous users and a time-out mechanism. In IEEE Xplore, the cookies will self-destruct upon logging-off or timing out of a session.

The use of cookies is an industry standard of most major websites and is NOT used to collect personally identifiable information about our users. The IEEE does not sell or otherwise share any individually identifiable information or any information about our users to third parties.

You may set up your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are sent. Please note that refusing cookies will limit some custom features and will prevent you from using IEEE Xplore.

The following IEEE Xplore features require additional use of cookies that exist for the IEEE Xplore session duration:

1. Access Information to help the user better understand his/her access rights.
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3. Dynamic welcome message that identifies the user.

IEEE Xplore uses cookie interrogation to make these features work during the user session. If cookie interrogation fails, the features will not work. It now becomes more important than ever for the user to (1) know that IEEE Xplore's cookies are failing and to (2) report the problem to the customer's information technology staff.

Accessing IEEE Xplore

To access IEEE Xplore, users must use the IEEE Xplore URL which includes the IEEE domain name http://www.ieee.org/ieeexplore or http://www.ieeexplore.ieee.org. Using the IP address (i.e.,http://140.98.193.112) will effectively result in cookies being disabled, regardless of the user's browser settings.

How does the user know that cookie interrogation has failed?

When the user accesses IEEE Xplore via the public Internet, IEEE Xplore normally detects that cookies are enabled and displays the message "Cookies Enabled" on the lower left corner of the home page. This means that IEEE Xplore successfully tested cookie transmission, client storage, and retrieval from the client. IEEE Xplore performs this test every time the user visits the home page. If IEEE Xplore detects that it sent a cookie and was unable to retrieve it from the client (for whatever reason), it displays the message "COOKIES DISABLED" on the lower left corner of the home page.

What is unique about the new features?

All three features require IEEE Xplore to re-interrogate a client cookie whenever the feature is used during the user session. The user can choose to query Access Information, but the other two features are IEEE Xplore defaults. Consequently, if the cookie interrogation fails, those IEEE Xplore features will also fail.

What causes cookie interrogation to fail?

There are many reasons. Here are the problems we have experienced so far:

• User has cookies disabled on his browser
• The customer's firewall blocks cookies
• The customer uses a proxy server that blocks cookies
• The customer uses a proxy vendor that sends cookies to IEEE Xplore from domains other than ieee.org

How does the user fix this problem?

The fact that IEEE Xplore displays the "COOKIES DISABLED" message can be due to any of the above reasons. Fixing a cookie problem due to cookies disabled on the browser is easiest (for example, see below.) Fixing a cookie problem due to other reasons requires assistance from the customer's IT staff, often in conjunction with the IEEE technical support staff available to all IEEE Xplore customers.

How do I enable cookies in Internet Explorer 6.0?

Follow these instructions:

1. Under the Tools drop-down menu, click on Internet Options.
2. Click on the Privacy tab and there, click on Advanced.
3. In the Advanced Privacy Settings window, check the box for Override automatic cookie handling. Click Accept under First-party Cookies and click Block under Third-party Cookies headings. (IEEE Xplore also permits accepting third party cookies should you wish to.)
4. Check the box for Always allow session cookies.
5. Click OK in that window and the Internet Options window.

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Recommended Platforms and Browsers for accessing IEEE Xplore

For best performance and to ensure accuracy, we recommend you use one of the following supported platforms and browsers*:

In addition, the following options must be enabled within the browser:

• Cookies
• JavaScript
• CSS styles

For best display, screen resolution 1024 by 768 pixels is recommended.
For best dial-up performance, a 56.6 or higher modem is recommended
For viewing PDF files, Adobe® Acrobat Reader 7.X or higher is recommended

For questions or details on these recommendations, contact onlinesupport@ieee.org.

*Note: IEEE Xplore may function with many browsers which are not on the recommended list. When a browser is not supported, the browser has not been tested on IEEE Xplore; therefore, we can not guarantee its function. We continue to evaluate our recommendations to meet the needs of our users. As new browsers are introduced and used to access IEEE Xplore, we expect modifications to the supported browsers list.

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For transactions, journals, and magazines, content is updated as soon as the issue is ready for print production, following all editorial and peer-review work. IEEE Xplore will be updated frequently with new content as it becomes available.

Individual articles from some IEEE periodicals are posted online before they are published in print. These articles have passed through all editorial processes, including peer-review and are not available in print until the issue is complete.

For conference proceedings, content appears in IEEE Xplore about 30-60 days following IEEE's receipt of the printed conference proceeding. Please note that conference proceedings often arrive at the IEEE several weeks after the conference date.

For standards, content is updated as it becomes available, following all editorial work.

View lists of recently added content.

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Logging in allows IEEE Xplore to identify the permissions of your online subscription. Most individual users have a username/password and will need to log in to conduct a search (using the Author or Advanced Searches) or attempting to access the AbstractsPlus or full text document.

Most companies or universities have set up their online subscription via IP authentication so users may access content based on the permissions assigned to those IP addresses. In this case, the login process happens automatically and the user is not prompted for an individual username/password.

It is good practice to log out when you are finished using IEEE Xplore. Logging out avoids others from gaining access to your subscriptions while your session is still active. Your session will expire after 15 minutes of inactivity.

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On certain browsers, the Enter key may not function as intended. Please select the submit arrow to log in or submit your search criteria.

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Users are permitted to view, download, and print content found in IEEE Xplore for personal use. For further information about the use of content, please read our terms and conditions.

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The IEEE Article Purchase service allows you to purchase full text PDF documents from IEEE and IET periodicals and conference proceedings directly from IEEE Xplore. Please go to IEEE Article Purchase for more information.

You also have the option of purchasing full text PDF IEEE standards. Please go to IEEE Standards Purchase for more information.

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IEEE has subscription options for individuals and institutions of all sizes. Learn more about digital subscriptions.

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IEEE members and individuals, please submit your request online to IEEE Contact Center or use one of the following::

Institutional subscribers complete the online Technical Support Form or contact IEEE Customer Service as follows:

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We welcome your feedback. Complete the online Feedback Form with your comments on the site, products, and services.

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IEEE Xplore offers various methods for finding out when new content is added.

The free Email Alerts service notifies you when a new journal, transaction, or magazine issue is posted online. Alerts include direct links to the issue's table of contents.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds are available for recently posted journal, transaction, and magazine issues.

The Content Updates feature allows you to view lists of recently added content in journals and magazines, conference proceedings, and standards.

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If you have trouble downloading the object, please complete the online Technical Support Form.

If you have trouble working with the object once you have downloaded it, please contact the author. Each extended object has an associated Readme file with information about the object, including author contact information.

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From search results, IEEE Xplore accommodates downloading a maximum of 75 citations per page. If you are having difficulty downloading citations, please be sure to select fewer than 75 citations on your search results.

Bibliographic management technical support:

• EndNote, go to http://www.endnote.com/support/ensupport.asp.
• ProCite, go to http://www.procite.com/support/pcsupport.asp.
• Reference Manager, go to http://www.refman.com/support/rmsupport.asp.
• RefWorks, go to http://www.refworks.com

Otherwise, complete the IEEE Xplore online Technical Support Form for assistance. Keep in mind that IEEE is not the owner of the above software and any questions related to the use of the software will be referred to ISI ResearchSoft.

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An IEEE standard is a document authored under the IEEE-Standards Association Standards Development Process from Project Authorization Request through to IEEE-Standards Association Standards Board Approval. However, there are other standards distributed via IEEE Xplore, namely C63, C136, etc. standards, that are Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) Standards, and which do not follow the definition outlined above. An ASC Standard is a document authored by a standards developing organization other than the IEEE, for which the IEEE holds secretariat responsibility.

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Simply, IEEE Xplore search results are weighted and sorted by relevance based on an algorithm using the following three parameters:

• Frequency of the search term in the full abstract/citation record
• Text length of the abstract/citation record
• For AND queries, proximity of the search terms throughout the abstract/citation record

More on Verity search operators:

All Verity search operators return 1.0 or 0, with the following exceptions: <MANY>, <NEAR>, <NEAR/N>, <AND>, <OR>, and <ACCRUE>.

<MANY> is a modifier for the evidence operators (<WORD>, <STEM>, <PHRASE>, <SENTENCE>, <PARAGRAPH>) that generates a score proportionate to the number of times the evidence appears in the document compared to the size of the document.

<NEAR> and <NEAR/N> generate a score depending on how close together the words appear in the document. The score will be 1.0 if the words are next to each other.

<AND> returns the minimum score of all its children.

<OR> returns the maximum score of all its children.

<ACCRUE> derives the score from the scores of all its children.

Children with a score of 0 do not contribute to the score. Note that children often default to a weight of 0.5, so you will often see lower scores with an <ACCRUE> compared to <AND> and <OR> the relative ranking of the documents is usually more important than the actual score. You will get the best results by keeping weights in the range of 0.2 to 0.8 for the children of <ACCRUE>.

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IEEE Xplore's Verity search engine determines stop words based on how many times the words occur during indexing. Then, based on a configuration setting of 4 million, the stop words are designated as words that occur 4 million or more times during indexing.

Prior to IEEE Xplore 2.0, we indexed one collection of metadata and another collection of metadata and PDF text data. Usually, users only searched the metadata so the occurrence of any word in indexing was less than 4 million. Users normally did not experience stop words because most searches were against metadata only.

However, with IEEE Xplore 2.0, we index and use one collection of metadata together with PDF text data dramatically increasing the occurrence of stop words such as "a", "the", and "in". A search for the author "rahim a. a." will therefore return "rahim a. a.", "rahim g.", and "rahim h." (among other names). This is because the Verity search engine has designated the letter "a" as a stop word and substitutes the "a" with an asterisk "*". One way to avoid this issue is to structure the query based on Example 1. In Example 1, the user specifies a fielded search that returns hits for only "rahim a. a.".

Example 1: au<contains>rahim a. a.

Note: Use of a comma after "rahim" completely changes the query. In Example 2, the Verity syntax interprets the comma after "rahim" to mean the search operator <accrue>, so the query returns instances of "rahim" or " a. a.", drastically increasing the number of search hits.

Example 2: au<contains>rahim, a. a.

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Full text HTML is available for IEEE Spectrum Magazine and Proceedings of the IEEE articles beginning with January 2002 issues.

At this time, full text HTML articles are not searchable, but are available for display by subscribers just as the full text PDF files.

Full text HTML is best viewed using either Netscape, version 7.x or higher, or Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.x or higher. For MAC users, we recommend using Netscape, version 7.1. Please consult the corresponding PDF format if your browser has difficulty displaying the full text HTML.

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IEEE is a founding member of CrossRef, the not-for-profit network founded on publisher collaboration, with a mandate to make reference linking throughout online scholarly literature efficient and reliable. CrossRef uses the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to link from the article's citation to the publisher's article abstract. IEEE journal and magazine AbstractPlus records in IEEE Xplore contain reference lists with CrossRef links to other publisher content. Access to content in the destination publisher's site depends on your subscription rights.

IEEE also participates in the CrossRef Search Pilot with other leading publishers. Google has indexed the full text of scholarly documents on the publishers' websites through a CrossRef gateway. This effort focuses users´ search and reduces the noice produced by general web searches. Access to articles is determined by each publisher and your institution's subscriptions.

Note: For the most comprehensive search of IEEE content, please use the IEEE Xplore Author, Basic, or Advanced search functions.

» IEEE Members and subscribers, go to CrossRef Search.

» If you have questions regarding the CrossRef Search, please contact help@google.com.

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Please check if your browser is set to allow pop-ups from IEEE Xplore. If not, the context-sensitive Help will not work.

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We currently have an acronym list for conferences published between 2005 and 2008.

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