IEEE Sensors Journal Report
for 2005-2006
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
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