Brief History
The IEEE Sensors Journal has made great progress since its inception in June 2001. During its first two years, Founding Editor in Chief (EIC), Vladimir Lumelsky, worked with the publications staff of the Signal Processing Society to produce the first 12 issues. I assumed the role of EIC in August 2003 as our staff support moved to the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS). Since January, 2004, Linda Matarazo, Publications Director for LEOS, has been managing the staff support for our Journal.
During its first five years, the Journal has continued to expand. The total pages printed each year are as follows:
2001: 400 (initially four issues)
2002: 720 (six issues thereafter)
2003: 888
2004: 916
2005: 1526
Editorial Board
There were 37 active Associate Editors (AEs) as of December 31, 2005. Publishing decisions are made by the Associate Editor to whom a submitted manuscript is assigned. The AEs solicit reviewers and manage the evaluation of manuscripts using Manuscript Central, the Institute’s online manuscript processing system.
Three of the AEs are designated as Senior Editors (John Vig, Michiel Vellekoop, and Gert Cauwenberghs). They handle special projects and advise the EIC.
The Editorial Board meets once each year in conjunction with the IEEE SENSORS Conference. The Board reviews publication policies and makes recommendations for improving the Journals operations.
Plans for 2006
At its meeting in November 2005 and in subsequent discussion thereafter, the Editorial Board suggested several actions and new initiatives for 2006.
Firstly, the Board wants to clear the backlog of accepted papers awaiting publication. Beginning in October 2005 and continuing into 2006, the bimonthly issues of the Journal have been expanded to approximately 300 pages per issue; this page rate will be continued until the backlog is reduce to about 30 papers (one standard Journal issue). This means that the Journal will publish about 1900 pages in 2006.
Secondly, the Journal will not publish any special issues (SIs) in 2006 in order to ensure that the backlog of accepted papers clears rapidly. Beginning in 2007, special issues will again resume. A SI on Intelligent Sensors has been announced, and others are in the planning stages. Visit the IEEE Sensors Council website for details (http://www.ieee.org/sensors).
Thirdly, in 2006, a Sensors Letters Section of the Journal will be established. Letters will be limited to two printed pages. Speed in publishing will be emphasized with a reduced reviewing cycle. Submitted Letters manuscripts will be either accepted or rejected. Accepted Letters will be placed at the front of our publishing queue of accepted papers. Letters will receive priority for selection of each issue’s cover art. We expect our Sensors Letters Section to make its debut in August 2006.
Fourthly, the Board wants to update and revise the 18 categories of our Editors Information Classification Scheme (EDICS). Subcommittees of the Board are being formed to review each category. A revised EDICS for the Journal will be ready later this year.
Fifthly, The Board is soliciting review and tutorial papers in areas within the technical scope of the Journal. Reviews and tutorial papers will bring to the Journal useful information on both the theory and applications of various sensor types. Providing such information in IEEE journals has been widely endorsed by the publishing administrative bodies of the Institute.
Finally, the Board has decided to reduce the number of decisions made by reviewers. The new decision levels are:
A: Publish Unaltered
AQ: Publish with Mandatory Changes (as noted in Section III)
R1: Review Again After Resubmission (Paper is not acceptable in its current form, but has merit. A major rewrite is required. Author should be encouraged to resubmit a rewritten version after the changes suggested in Section III have been completed.)
R2: Reject (Paper is not acceptable for the Sensors Journal. Author should be encouraged to submit to another journal.)
R3: Reject (Paper is seriously flawed; do not encourage resubmission.)
The decision AQ will not be assigned to Sensors Letters manuscripts.
Concluding Remarks
The IEEE Sensors Journal is rapidly becoming the leading publication in the sensors field. If IEEE members and other readers of the Journal have suggestions for improvement, please send them to the EIC.
Troy Nagle
EIC, IEEE Senors Journal
t.nagle@ieee.org