Publications

THE YEAR 2010 was another busy year. We continued striving for excellence in several areas, in particularly, as it relates to improving the technical and overall quality of papers published in the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (TIM). This was achieved by paying particular attention to this issue throughout the submission and review processes. I would like to take this opportunity and highlight some of our accomplishments for 2010.

Accomplishments:

• Recognition of our "Best Reviewers" by sending them individual "Thank You" letters and certificates of appreciation. I consider this a best practice, and we have received extremely positive responses to this type of well-deserved recognition.
• Published approximately 3450 pages, with the goal of reducing the number of papers in the publication queue. 
• Continued publication of the annual IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) Special Issue in May. 
• Added several new associate editors in the areas that we lacked expertise. 
• Introduced a two-year term for associate editors, with a possible term extension. 
• Several Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) Society-sponsored special issues were granted, and several were published as well. 
• Processed two large special issues, namely, the 2010 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) Special Issue and the 2010 Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements Special Issues. 
• Continued rapid posting of papers. See "Early Access" at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=19. Papers appearing in the Early Access list can be properly cited. 
• Continued monthly posting of the TIM's review-process timeliness metrics. See the I&M Society website http://www.ieee-ims.org/main/, and on the Transactions page, click on "Current TIM Metrics". We also added the Submission-to-E-publication timeliness metric to the list. 
• The "upcoming-issue table of contents" is continuously being posted on the Society's Transactions web page in order to assist authors in better tracking the publication date of their papers. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2010.2080370 
• Finally, we began publishing papers grouped under several technical areas. This is intended to make it easier for our readers to quickly find papers in their technical areas of interest.

Review-Process Timeliness Metrics:
At the time of writing this message (September 2010), our reviewer-process timeliness metrics for regular papers during the past 12 months are the following: average days to initial decision, 64; average days to final decision, 120; percentage of submitted papers that are accepted for publication, 50%; percentage of papers with initial decision rendered in 120 days, 93%; percentage of papers with initial decision rendered in 180 days, 99%; and percentage of papers with final decision rendered in 180 days, 82%. As I stated in my 2009 message, I believe we should strive toward improving the last statistic (surpassing the 90% mark). For a complete list of these metrics and those for special issues and short papers, please see the I&M Society website, and on the Transactions page, click on "Current TIM Metrics".

Submission-to-E-publication Metric:
This is an area where we have made a significant improvement. The number of weeks that it took for a paper to be rapid-posted from the date of submission in 2008, 2009, and 2010 (up until September) were 57, 37, and 21 weeks, respectively.

Impact Factor:
The increase in the TIM's Impact Factor in 2008 was followed by another increase in 2009 from 0.978 to 1.025, with a corresponding increase in the five-year Impact Factor from 1.138 to 1.150. The Immediacy Index and Cited Half-Life metrics also improved to 0.170 and 8.1, respectively. We look forward to the further improvement in all of these metrics when the 2010 scores become available in mid-2011.

Andy Chi Best Paper Award:
We updated and revised the guidelines for the Andy Chi Best Paper Award. We were not able to present this award in the past two years due mostly to the publication timing of eligible papers. However, using the Allentrack system has made this process much more efficient. The process involves nominations for the Best Papers by the associate editors (considering inputs from the reviewers). Subsequently, the Best Paper Selection Committee, formed by the editor-in-chief, selects the Best Paper from among the candidate papers. The next award will be presented at the 2011 I2MTC.

Plagiarism, Dual/Multiple Submission, etc.:
In 2010, we had several cases that had (potentially) fallen under this category. As a result, the submission page on Allentrack was updated to remind authors about this important issue. As a critical element of the submission process, the contact authors are required to certify the following:
"By initialing below, on behalf of all authors, I certify that the manuscript being submitted is based on original materials, and/or one with substantially similar content under my/our authorship, has not been published, or is currently being considered for publication elsewhere, or will not be submitted elsewhere unless this submission is Rejected or has been Withdrawn from consideration, except as described in a cover letter which must be submitted along with the manuscript (see below for Cover Letter submission). IEEE rules governing issues related to plagiarism, dual submission, etc. can be found at HERE. By initialling below, the author(s) also certify having familiarized themselves with these rules. Substantial publications sanctions may be imposed on ALL authors if these rules are violated."

We also updated the Allentrack submission process so that everytime a paper is submitted; all authors receive a notification of the submission. This was done to help partially alleviate potential problems with the submission of a paper on behalf of another person(s) and possibly without their knowledge.

We have an active ad hoc committee that considers potential violations and, after evaluating the facts of each case, renders a decision and a recommendation of possible sanctions. It is important to note that, depending on the degree to which IEEE rules may be violated, all authors could lose their publishing privileges in all IEEE journals for up to five years.

Reviewers:
Reviewers are the cornerstone of timeliness and quality. The most important function of a reviewer is to provide objective, substantial, and technically correct and relevant comments in order to help authors improve the overall quality of their papers. We are extremely grateful to all of our reviewers who spent many selfless hours reviewing papers and providing objective comments. You will find the names of those who reviewed papers in 2010 after this message, and to all of them, I extend my sincerest expressions of gratitude and appreciation. We will also continue the recognition of our Best Reviewers by sending them individual "Thank You" letters and certificates of appreciation. I would like to repeat a request I made in 2009. To those of you who receive requests to review papers, I would like to ask the following: When you receive such a request, please quickly decide whether you will be able to review the paper in the requested time frame (usually three weeks). If you accept, please make every effort to finish and upload your review on time. If you are going to be unexpectedly late, please inform the associate editor and Ms. Cam Ingelin or Ms. Reta Wehmeier and request for additional time. However, if you decide that you will be unable to review (for any reason) please "decline" immediately (and perhaps hopefully suggest another reviewer). In this case, the associate editor can expeditiously seek another reviewer. The fact of the matter is that "a timely decline-to-review is as important as a timely review." We continue IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT to proactively monitor reviewer timeliness and update our list of reviewers accordingly (i.e., remove unresponsive reviewers).

Associate Editors:
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the selfless and professional works of our associate editors in making each issue of the TIM possible. Consequently, we have decided to formally recognize a number of our associate editors, on an annual basis. Therefore, starting in 2011, at the I2MTC awards luncheon, several associate editors will be recognized for their outstanding works during the previous year by receiving a nice plaque. In addition, the overlength charges of up to four pages may be waived for papers co-authored by them.

New Transactions Assistant Administrator:
In 2010, we welcomed Ms. Reta Wehmeier (reta1977@gmail.com) as a the new member of our transactions administrative team.
Ms. Wehmeier's responsibilities include the following: assisting associate editors with contacting reviewers, reminding associate editors on papers that are ready for decision and need to be expedited, reminding authors about the timely submission of revised papers, collecting monthly and quarterly timeliness statistics, and assisting the plagiarism ad-hoc and the Best Paper selection committees. She also assists Ms. Cam Ingelin with various other tasks related to the submission process. Ms. Wehmeier's addition to the team has already paid significant dividends, and we are thrilled to have her as part of our team.

Final Thoughts:
As in years past, I am extremely grateful to Ms. Cam Ingelin who meticulously and expertly processes papers from the minute they are submitted to the final step of publication. I would also like to thank Ms. Wehmeier who has been tirelessly helping everyone who has needed help, and in particular, for relieving me of some administrative duties, so that I can spend my time on more broad-reaching issues related to the Transactions. I wish to thank the I&M Society Ad hoc Committees and Dr. Ruth Dyer (Publications Vice President, 2010) for their continued support offor the TIM by providing thoughtful suggestions. As in the past year, Ms. Sara Scudder at of the IEEE is responsible for receiving our accepted papers from Allentrack and facilitating their eventual publication in TIM. I am grateful to her for being extremely professional, proficient, and responsive to our needs.

I look forward to another successful year, and in the meanwhile, please feel free to contact me with your suggestions and comments.

REZA ZOUGHI, Editor-In-Chief

Reza Zoughi
(S '85 - M '86 - SM '93 - F '06) received the B.S.E.E, M.S.E.E, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (radar remote sensing, radar systems, and microwaves) from the University of Kansas, Laurence. From 1981 to 1987, he was with the Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Laboratory, University of Kansas. From 1987 to 2001, he was a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University (CSU), Fort Collins, where he established the Applied Microwave nondestructive Testing Laboratory. From 1995 to 1997, he was the Business Challenge Endowed Professor of electrical and computer engineering with CSU. He is currently the Schlumberger Endowed Professor of electrical and computer engineering with Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, formerly the University of Missouri-Rolla.  Dr. Zoughi is a Fellow of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing.

(Last Update: May 26, 2009)

The following guidelines detail the process leading to publication of Special Issue Sections in the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (TIM) for conferences and workshops sponsored (technically and/or financially) by the Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IMS).

* Conferences and workshops MUST contact the transactions editor-in-chief (EIC) and request a Special Issue immediately after their request for sponsorship from the society has been approved and not later (in particular not after the conference has taken place).

* The EIC makes a determination as to whether or not a Special Issue will be assigned to the conference or workshop based on considering several pertinent factors (including but not limited to the technical scope of the conference, request timeliness, etc.).  There three options that may be considered: 1) the guest editor acts as the associate editor and will monitor the review process, 2) the guest editor only quality checks the submitted papers for whether the papers are technically extended beyond the proceedings copy and also whether the authors registered (full registration) and presented the paper (oral or poster) at the conference and then the Editor-in-Chief assigns the papers to the regular associate editors who will handle the review process, and 3) no special issue will be assigned and authors will be asked to submit their extended papers, still fulfilling the special issue requirements, and the papers will be reviewed as "regular" papers and will publish the accepted papers under the common technical area grouping.  Consistent with options #1 and #2, guest editor(s) will be given associate editor permission in the web-based manuscript submission and review process system used by TIM (http://tim.allentrack.net).

* If the publication of a Special Issue has been approved by the EIC, conferences and workshops MUST immediately and clearly advertise (in their web site, brochures, announcements, etc.) the fact that all papers, independent of the mode of presentation (i.e., oral or poster), that are presented at the conference with at least one author having paid full registration fee, are eligible to be considered for the Special Issue. Any exceptions (limited and such as conference-sponsored keynotes and invited speakers, etc.) must be approved by the society vice president for conferences and the transactions EIC.  In addition, the conference or workshop MUST identify a two-week period, after the conference has taken place (usually about four weeks after the conference), during which (and only in this period) the authors may upload their extended Special Issue papers.

* The conference or workshop MUST identify one or two individuals as the guest editor(s) for the Special Issue. The guest editor(s) will in turn assemble a group of at least three individuals as the "Special Issue Selection Committee". It is strongly suggested that the organizers and guest editors contact TIM EIC, Professor Alessandro Ferrero, as soon as possible for planning purposes and with any questions they may have.

* Only a maximum of ten papers from any given conference or workshop will be published in the Special Issue section of TIM. However, since many more papers may be submitted, the remaining reviewed and accepted papers will appear in an upcoming regular issue of TIM. There are additional requirements for ALL papers (Special Issue and regular) from the conferences and workshops that must be adhered to, as outlined below.

* Paper(s) authored or co-authored by the guest editor(s) are NOT eligible for publication in the Special Issue section. However, once reviewed and accepted they will appear in the next available regular issue.

* The guest editor(s) in consultation with the "Special Issue Selection Committee" will decide which of the ten accepted papers will appear in the Special Issue section.

* The guest editor(s) are expected to prepare an introductory page for the Special Issue (such as those for I2MTC Special Issues).

Additional Requirements:

1. The paper must be TECHNICALLY extended beyond the scope of the paper that may have appeared in the conference or workshop proceedings (if any).

2. At the time of submission, the authors must provide detailed information (in a separate file to be uploaded as part of the submission process) regarding how the paper is a technically extended version of the proceedings paper.

3. The proceedings paper MUST be clearly referred to in the text and listed as one of the references in the special-issue paper.

4. A PDF copy of the proceedings paper must be submitted at the time of special-issue paper submission.

5. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission to re-use and re-print materials from the proceedings paper and this permission must be obtained ahead of time from its publisher. An acknowledgement and permission statement required by the proceedings paper publisher must be properly incorporated in the Special Issue paper. The author(s) is (are) solely responsible for this and any other copyright permission-related requirements and issues. If the proceedings paper was copyrighted by the IEEE, this permission is not required.

6. When uploading your manuscript click on "Special Issue Manuscript" in the "Manuscript Upload Instructions" page of the Allentrack System.  Then, in page #1 of "Submit Manuscript" you must choose your specific Special Issue.  Subsequently, in the same page and in the "Files to Upload" section you MUST upload two files; one containing a detailed explanation of how the paper is TECHNICALLY extended beyond the scope of the proceedings paper and another which is a PDF copy of the Conference/Workshop Proceedings paper.  To this end, you must put the number "2" in the small box in front of "Extension Beyond Proceedings & Copy of Proceedings" (if any was published) so that the system allows you to upload these two files. Consequently, these two files will be available to the reviewers. Failure to submit a detailed explanation of the TECHNICAL extension and a PDF copy of the Proceedings paper will result in the immediate return of the manuscript to the author(s) as an unacceptable submission.

The Instrumentation & Measurement Society is involved, either financially or technically, with many publications that are of interest to our members.

The IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity - This quarterly publication concentrates on materials and their applications to electronics and power systems where superconductivity is central to the work.

The Journal of Lightwave Technology - Published monthly, the Journal is concerned with research, applications, and methods used in all aspects of lightwave technology and fiber optics.

The IEEE Sensors Journal - The bimonthly publication specializes in the theory, design, fabrication, manufacturing, and applications of devices for sensing and transducing physical, chemical, and biological phenomena.

The IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology - This quarterly journal is devoted to the dissemination of new results and discussions related to understanding the physical basis and engineering applications of phenomena at the nanoscale level.

The IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems - This journal is published quarterly and contains basic and applied research to expand the knowledge base on transportation for improved design, management, and control of future transportation systems.

The IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing - Research papers are presented in this quarterly publication dealing with mobile computing, wireless networks, reliability, quality assurance, distributed systems architecture, and high-level protocols.

The IEEE Press Books - The IEEE I&M Society underwrites and sponsors books on topics of keen interest. The Society has published books on the history of electronic instrumentation and the development of electrical and magnetic measurements.

For author's instructions and any further information concerning publications, click the corresponding title.