On the official page of IEEE, the definition of multi-contribution is simple: the article needs to be unpublished and not in the review state.

Over the years, the IEEE multiple publishing policy has established a useful standard for authors and publishing volunteers. Authors should only submit original works that have not been published elsewhere or reviewed in another reference publication.

In fact, all authors know that the same manuscript cannot be published in multiple journals, which is a bigamy crime from the perspective of marriage. And it is easy to be retrieved, and the consequences are very serious, so few people really do it. The fear of submitting more than one manuscript is much less, because if two or even several journals are far apart and editors and reviewers are different, the possibility of discovery is relatively small. Besides, the article has not been published yet. If only one journal is hired, there is no risk of multiple manuscripts. In that case, when graduation thesis or professional title evaluation is needed, the author will often be forced by realistic pressure and take the initiative to choose more papers. Or when the first submitted journal takes too long to review or loses contact, the author will be forced to choose to contribute to other journals.

In general, it is useless to define more than one manuscript, because it is rare to see the same manuscript submitted to different journals at the same time, so moral self-discipline is more necessary to restrain more than one manuscript.

Multi-contribution is a very bad academic and moral problem. IEEE official website also said very briefly:

Many kinds of publications are regarded as a waste of funds and space, which can not bring the full value of subscription to members and libraries, and lead to confusion in citation and indexing. It should be avoided except in special circumstances. ?

It is mainly a waste of time for editors and reviewers. Once published by multiple journals at the same time, it will make people confused when quoting articles.

Once more than one manuscript is found, some journals will notify the relevant units, except for articles, which will definitely be rejected. How to deal with it in the end may be different for each unit, but it will always affect the author's integrity and hinder the publication of future articles. The author should not cross the line with luck. If the publication deadline is under pressure, they should make plans early, contribute early or spend more time polishing articles to improve the employment rate of articles.