Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale / International Union of Radio Science
Publications

Publications

INTRO

Introduction:

URSI Radio Science Letters (RSL) is an electronic journal owned and operated by the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). Its purpose is to rapidly publish original and previously unpublished scientific research work in all areas of radio science, in the form of short contributions that are rigorously reviewed. The journal is open access and is published only in electronic format, one volume per calendar year. Each reviewed and accepted letter is published as soon as full editing is completed. Each published contribution is identified by volume number, year of publication, and DOI.

Submission of manuscripts

The URSI Radio Science Letters (RSL) welcomes scientific contributions in all areas of radio science from all authors, with no discrimination on the basis on race, ethnicity, sex and sexual orientation, disability, nationality, religious and political ideologies, scientific ideas, or membership in organizations. The RSL adheres to the principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing of the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12).

Contributions to the RSL must be in the form of manuscripts in English, not exceeding four published pages in length. An additional page will be accepted at no charge if it contains only references. In exceptional circumstances, a letter of up to six published pages which contains high-quality scientific results may be accepted with the approval of the Editor-in-Chief (EIC).

A template and instructions for prospective authors are provided:

- MsWord template

- LaTeX template

Initial submissions must be in PDF. Final submissions must also contain a source file, either Word or LaTeX. The PeerTrack manuscript management system of Allen Press is used to handle the submissions and the review and publishing process. The year of publication is the year of submission of the manuscript.

Please send your manuscripts to:

https://www.editorialmanager.com/RSL

Review process

The RSL is intended to be a very rapid publication journal. The EIC will reject all manuscripts which content does not belong to radio science, and will return to the corresponding author manuscripts which need reformatting. The EIC will assign manuscripts with appropriate technical content and format to an Associate Editor, who will obtain at least two independent and anonymous reviews. In a cover letter accompanying the submission, the corresponding author may request that specific individuals be excluded from the review process. The EIC will promptly notify the corresponding author of the comments of the reviewers, of the Associate Editor’s comments, and of the consequent disposition of the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to keep any and all co-authors fully informed at all stages of the review process.

Only minor changes are acceptable. If minor revisions are required, a revised manuscript must be submitted within thirty days of the EIC’s decision, unless the EIC grants additional revision time. If major changes are required, the manuscript will be rejected with or without a suggestion to submit a revised version, which will undergo a new round of reviews. Plagiarism, as well as duplicate submission and publication, will result in rejection of the submission.

Publication  agreement and page charges

Authors of accepted manuscripts are expected to sign the URSI Publication Agreement as a precondition to publication. A manuscript processing charge of 175 USD per published page or fraction thereof (reduced to 150 USD for URSI Senior Members and Fellows) is to be paid as a condition for the posting of an accepted contribution. There will be no discount for pages over four.

The URSI Board has approved a special reduced rate of 100 USD per page, up to four pages, for all letters originating from presentations at symposia technically co-sponsored by URSI and submitted to the RSL by December 15 of the calendar year in which the symposia took place.