Q: Can I submit an improved version of my previously published ‘Letter article’ in a different journal?
Earlier this year, my research was published in IEEE Signal Processing Letters. I would like to expand and improve this content and submit a new paper. As far as I know, the research published in the ‘Letter article’ is recommended to be submitted to the same society's transaction journal for a more detailed description, experiments, and new and improved research after publication. But can I submit it to other society transactions journal (IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence)? The sentences and paragraphs of the previously published letter will be quoted almost literally in the paper to be newly submitted. Of course, I would like to clarify the research contents already described in the published letter and the new research contents that have been improved, but I wonder if I can submit them to other societies.
You can publish the manuscript in any journal of your choice as long as you cite the previous study is cited and make it clear as to how the current manuscript has built upon the older study, how the current study is novel, and how it advances knowledge from the previous study. However, if this information is not adequately provided, it could be regarded as duplicate publication or salami publication.
Additionally, note that you cannot quote verbatim from the previous study since this will amount to self-plagiarism. You need to rephrase the sentences, but ensure that the total meaning is not lost. In the methods section, however, you can cite your previously published article and briefly describe the experiment. Make sure that your current manuscript encompassing more experiments and data falls under the scope of the target journal that you have selected.
Please make sure that if you are using any illustrations from your previous publication, you have permission to reproduce the same; this would depend on the type of copyright you have signed with the journal where you have published your earlier manuscript.
On another note, the expanded article might gain more priority in the journal where the ‘Letter article’ was published since it might be of interest to the readership of that journal to gain more insights into the preliminary study that has already been published. That said, all manuscripts undergo peer review even if they were published as ‘Letter articles’ earlier and the decision to publish the elaborate article ultimately lies with the editor.
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage