IEEE ENGINEERINGMANAGEMENTREVIEWFrom The Editor: Volume 29, Number 3, Third Quarter 2001
Something New in Review David J. Wells University of Houston
The IEEE Engineering Management Review has the responsibility of providing managing engineers and engineering managers with useful information and perspective. Further, it ought to complement their traditional background of education and work experience. It takes a significant amount of knowledge and ability to be an engineer, but when engineers have to manage as well, additional skills and awareness are required. That may be stating the obvious, but upward-bound engineers are not always provided the resources and perspective that can help them navigate new environments. Furthermore, careful readers of this journal understand that I believe that more engineers ought to be in charge; that for industrial leadership, engineering ought to be recognized as the preeminent discipline of choice.
Readership has grown and the Review continues to receive excellent feedback. Reader comments have been very encouraging, and we have received good suggestions for improvement. It takes time to consider all the ideas, work up a proposal, and marshal the necessary resources and approvals to effect change, but in 2002 the Review will begin to develop a way to better serve its readers' needs and interests. The proposal changes have been discussed with the Engineering Management Society's Board of Governors, and they share our enthusiasm for the possibilities of an expanded role for the Review.
The most common reader recommendation is that we limit any significant change because the content and selected themes are useful, and many archive their issues or route them to others in their organization. In short, the Review is liked. The second most common recommendation is to provide more information for the new and aspiring engineering manager to complement the strategic perspectives provided. In addition to columns already in place, topics such as
project management, human resources, professional communications, quality, law, and organizational development will be regularly addressed as a means of introducing readers to important tools and viewpoints. There is also a desire-and need-for the Review to have a greater Web presence, and that has been a challenge because these are reprinted articles and we only have the rights for print; also, the electronic rights are not reasobly available for Internet or other forms of electronic publishing.
In line with an increased Web presence are two other goals. One is to offer more original content, and the other is to facilitate greater interaction among readers, writers, and editors. Increasing original content is important but it is not an easy thing to accomplish if the Review is to maintain its standards regarding content, utility, and writing quality. Original work will provide content for archiving and posting materials on the Web site. It will also enable dialogue with authors, as well as allow an opportunity for roundtable discussions, interviews, and case studies, which will, furthermore, provide additional original content. A target has been set to attain a level of 50 percent original content. That objective may not be fully realized in 2002, but we expect to make good progress. As that level of original content is attained, each issue will contain six or more reprint, thematically centered articles. These will comprise the front half of the publication.
In the past, the Review has regularly declined unsolicited manuscripts submitted for publication. That will now change; new material will be sought that will be relevant to our readers and of an applied nature. A peer review process is being implemented to evaluate and approve all original material, whether solicited or unsolicited. The first objective is to uphold quality of content. We will also endeavor to provide more information regarding contributing authors as well as provide executive summaries of key articles, and we hope to encourage dialogue between authors and readers regarding the selected topics.
It will take the Review a while to get its legs; it may take some time to collect material that meets our standards of quality and utilitarian value in order to comprise half of each issue. However, on the Web side of things, Leila Rabuya is working up a Web design, which will go live early in 2002.
In the meantime, we welcome further suggestions and invite your comments and contributions.
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT REVIEW A publication of the IEEE Engineering Management Society