Incoming Editor's Message

Dear Readers,

I feel really pleased and honored to introduce myself as the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. When Professor Zoughi told me that the AdCom of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society had appointed me in this position, two thoughts came to my mind.

The first one: Even trying to be as good as Reza has been in his term is a tremendous responsibility for me. The second thought brought me back to the beginning of my career, when I submitted my first paper to this Transactions. At that time the submission web site was long to come, and I had to ship four hard copies of my manuscript to the EIC by regular mail. To me, a young and inexperienced guy, the EIC was a sort of mythological entity, with overwhelming power on my poor manuscript, and not even in my most optimistic moments could I imagine one day I would serve in that position. Looking back to that time, I realize how much we have progressed: The submission process is maybe less romantic, but much more efficient. And now I know for sure that the EIC is far different from what appeared to me!

Professor Zoughi’s message is the clearest evidence of how this journal has progressed and improved. I fully agree with his vision and I do share his target of quality. Thanks to his hard work, well supported by the Associate Editors, the Reviewers and the Staff Members, this journal has improved in every respect, from the so called bibliometric indices (Impact Factor, Immediacy Index, Cited Half-Life) to the number of published articles and the feedback we receive from our readers. I am not a fan of these indices, but I have to recognize that they are somehow related to the overall quality of a journal, and their improvement has to be pursued. However, I do think that they are the effect of an increased quality, and not the origin of a higher quality. Therefore I wish to assure you that this journal will never try to increase them in a surreptitious way, as it has unfortunately become the habit of some low-quality journals, by asking Authors to add a minimum number of references to TIM-published articles. On the contrary, I will spend time and energy to make sure that the overall quality of the TIM will improve in the only acceptable way: through a timely and strict review process, driven by the most competent and meticulous Associate Editors, and assigned to competent Reviewers, whose comments will invaluably help Authors to improve their papers.

Thanks to Reza, we have set this course many years ago, and I will do my best not to divert from it.  I also know that I can rely on his precious support and advice from his new position of Past Editor-in-Chief. This will ensure a smooth transition and will greatly help me to realize the initiatives we planned to further improve the quality of this journal. As Reza wrote when he was appointed EIC, we will make it the most desirable journal people active in the field of Instrumentation and Measurement can find to publish the results of their work.

The first initiative we are starting next year is the publication of a number of special issues, or special sections in regular issues, dedicated to specific, state-of-the-art, time-sensitive and important topics in the field of interest of this Transactions, where the top specialists of these topics can expose their perspectives and the last scientific findings in the field. The first of these issues, that we plan to publish by the end of 2012, is dedicated to the fundamentals of the measurement science; fundamentals which are too often neglected to privilege more immediate results achieved in the design of innovative instruments.

We think that a reflection on the fundamental issues of metrology would be of great interest for our readers, also in view of the quite probable change in the SI (the International System of Units) that the CGPM (the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures) will approve in its next meeting in 2015.

I hope that these Special Issues will help us to better serve our readers. Too often we forget that a journal, even a scientific journal, can survive only if it meets the expectations of its readers and is fruitful to them. Too often scientific journals are managed having only authors in mind. However, authors, before being authors, were readers; and every new work is – and shall be – inspired by a thorough literature search. New results shall always be validated by comparing them with the already existing ones. Moreover, today’s readers will probably be tomorrow’s authors. If we offer them a qualified, broad insight on the most innovative works in the Instrumentation and Measurement field, we not only serve them, but we also contribute to educate new generations of authors, thus ensuring a bright future for this journal.

All this can be achieved through constant feedback from our readers. So, please, do not hesitate to contact me with your comments, complaints and suggestions. They will surely help me in making this Transactions more and more useful and desirable.

Let me now conclude with a warm thank you to Reza for the wonderful job he has done and for the honor of this nomination. Let me thank the AdCom of the Instrumentation and Measurement Society for having appointed me to this challenging position. Let me also thank the wonderful team of Associate Editors and Reviewers for their hard, and mostly obscure work. They have most of the merit for the present quality of this journal and I hope they will continue cooperating with me in the same great way they did with Reza. Last but not least, let me thank two wonderful ladies: Ms. Cam Ingelin and Ms. Reta Wehmeier, whose competent, meticulous and tireless work is absolutely invaluable.

Alessandro Ferrero

Alessandro Ferrero (M’88–SM’96–F’99) was born in Milan, Italy, in 1954. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 1978. In 1983, he joined the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, as an Assistant Professor of electrical measurements. From 1987 to 1991, he was with the University of Catania, Catania, Italy, as an Associate Professor of measurements on electrical machines and systems. From 1991 to 1994, he was with the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, as an Associate Professor of electrical measurements, where he has been a Full Professor of electrical and electronic measurements since 1994.  His current research interests include uncertainty evaluation, the application of digital methods to electrical measurements and measurements on electric power systems under nonsinusoidal conditions.  Prof. Ferrero is a member of the Italian Association of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Italian Association for Industrial Automation. He has chaired the Italian Association for Electrical and Electronic Measurements for the three-year term 2004–2007 and he has been the President of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurements Society for the 2008 – 2009 term. In 2011 he has been elected Foreign Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, in the Class of the Technical Sciences. He is the recipient of the 2006 Joseph F. Keithley IEEE Field Award for Instrumentation and Measurement.