I'm still in academia, and IEEE runs quite a few high-quality / top-tier journals and conferences in my research area (TAC, TRO, RA-L, LCSS, ACC, CDC, etc.) I'm a part of the control systems society, and their Controls Systems Magazine is a good read. On the perhaps more trivial side an Overleaf professional subscription was included with my membership.
So again, there are benefits. But I am frustrated that I'm being advertised to and having my data sold to third-party companies after paying over $200 per year for a membership. I also have issues with journal paywalls, but this is slowly changing as open access journals become more common.
> So again, there are benefits. But I am frustrated that I'm being advertised to and having my data sold to third-party companies after paying over $200 per year for a membership.
Yes, my University library covers access to many (but not all) IEEE articles, but the ability to download and read IEEE articles from a library is completely separate from being an IEEE member.
IEEE membership costs ~$229 for 2025 in the U.S. for Professionals [1]. This fee typically is not covered by universities in my experience.
If you're asking why I don't simply access articles through my library and forget about the membership, members typically are given fairly significant discounts and enhanced options for publishing in conferences and open access journals.
