As the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, I would like to express my appreciation to my predecessor Robert Calderbank for his service to the Transactionsfor the past three years. During this period of time, as always, the Transactions published the best papers in our field, and maintain edits remarkable dominance in the core areas of information theory. In my role as Editor-in-Chief, I aim to keep the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory in its place as the premier journal covering all aspects of information transmission, processing, and utilization.
In keeping up with this goal, I am fortunate to have the
advice of an
outstanding Editorial Board. In addition to:
| Alexander Barg | Coding Theory |
| Ian F. Blake | Coding Theory |
| Michael Honig | Communications |
| Torleiv Kl/ove | Coding Theory |
| Frank Kschischang | Coding Theory |
| Neri Merhav | Source Coding |
| Pierre Moulin | Nonparametric Estimation, Classification, and Neural Networks |
| Shlomo Shamai | Shannon Theory |
| Emina Soljanin | Coding Techniques |
| Douglas R. Stinson | Complexity and Cryptography |
eight new Associate Editors are joining the Editorial Board this year:
| Venkat Anantharam | Communication Networks |
| Philip A. Chou | Source Coding |
| Imre Csisz'ar | Shannon Theory |
| Thomas E. Fuja | At Large |
| Sanjeev Kulkarni | Nonparametric Estimation, Classification, and Neural Networks |
| Upamanyu Madhow | Detection and Estimation |
| Joseph A. O'Sullivan | Detection and Estimation |
| Ron M. Roth | Coding Theory |
I am inheriting from my predecessor a smoothly running operation. Extended backlog is ancient history --- papers accepted for publication are now forwarded to the IEEE without further delay, and almost every issue of the Transactions is produced promptly on time. This is due in no small part to the devoted effort of Publications Editor Steve McLaughlin. I am delighted to announce that Steve has agreed to serve the Transactions as Publications Editor for one more year, through July 1, 1999. His successor has been already identified, and the details of this transition will be announced in the next issue of this Newsletter.
Later in this article, I would like to discuss the general state of the Transactions. But first, let me describe some specific developments that will affect the Transactions in the near future.
Electronic submission: Although the backlog that was
present a number of years ago is now gone, the overall delay from
submission to publication continues to be a major concern. The
current average delay of about 22 months for regular papers and
19 months for correspondence items is unacceptably high, and we
have already taken concrete steps to reduce this delay. In the
June 1996 issue of the Newsletter, my predecessor wrote, "It
is not hard to imagine the day when all steps in the editorial
process (submission of original manuscript, reviews, revisions,
and final manuscript) are done electronically."
That day is today. Elsewhere in this Newsletter, you will find
detailed instructions for optional electronic submission of manuscripts
to the Transactions. For papers submitted electronically, the
intent is to have all communication between authors, editors,
and referees by e-mail, thereby expediting the review process.
We estimate that electronic submission and review will reduce
the delay to publication by up to three months. Furthermore, additional
measures to reduce the time to publication will be implemented
in the future. Notice that the electronic submission option is
just that --- optional. Conventional submission of manuscripts
-- on paper -- will certainly still be supported. Nevertheless,
I expect that most authors will soon embrace this option, and
the majority of manuscripts submitted to the Transactions will
be submitted and reviewed electronically.
Special issues: This is an exciting time for information theory, distinguished by the 50-year anniversary of Shannon's seminal paper A mathematical theory of communication, which gave birth to our field. As an appropriate tribute, we will publish a special 50-th Anniversary Commemorative Issue in October 1998, the month of publication of Shannon's work. This special issue will contain survey articles by leading experts in diverse areas of information theory, and will undoubtedly become an essential reference for anyone interested in our field. Another special issue, devoted to the subject of multi scale statistical analysis, is scheduled for early 1999.
Contributor biographies: As of January 1999, each issue
of the Transactions will contain the biographies of all contributors
to the issue, regardless of whether the contribution is a regular
paper or a correspondence item. David Forney, during his term
as Editor-in-Chief twenty-five years ago, gave a precise definition
of the distinction between regular papers and correspondence items.
He wrote: "The distinction is not one of quality, but of
nature; normally a correspondence item will have one point to
make briefly and without adornment, whereas a regular paper
will be a more well-rounded treatment of a problem area. "These
words have appeared on the inside back cover of our Transactions
ever since, and some of the best research reported in the Transactions
was reported in the form of correspondence items (indeed, two
of the 15 papers selected for the Golden Jubilee Paper Award
by our Society are correspondence items). I wholeheartedly subscribe
to the point of view that the quality of a correspondence should
be just as high as the quality of a regular paper. As always,
both forms of submission will be reviewed by theTransactions using
the same criteria. Thus the disparity between regular papers and
correspondence items in the Contributors section sends the wrong
message to our authors and our readership.
The change of Editors might be an appropriate time to reflect
on the state of the Transactions in the past and present, and
identify the trends that will shape its future. The table below
contains some numerical data that I gathered by counting the number
of regular papers and correspondence items published in the Transactions
over the past 10 years.
TABLE 1. Statistics on the state of the Transactions
---------------------------------------------------
YEAR I #R Rpa #C Cpa #S #A Tp
---------------------------------------------------
1989 6 100 10.3 76 3.6 351 176 1396
1990 6 71 14.1 109 4.1 356 180 1560
1991 7 96 11.0 141 4.4 386 237 1804
1992 7 94 13.3 123 4.3 434 217 1908
1993 6 121 11.6 119 4.4 481 240 2056
1994 6 116 12.2 134 4.8 420 250 2176
1995 7 122 12.3 119 4.4 496 241 2232
1996 7 128 12.9 120 4.7 467 248 2344
1997 6 107 12.4 133 5.2 554 240 2144
1998 5 89 14.6 126 5.6 482 215 2040
---------------------------------------------------
Legend:
I number of issues
#R number of regular papers published
Rpa average length of a regular paper
#C number of correspondence items published
Cpa average length of a correspondence item
#S total number of manuscripts submitted two years prior
#A total number of papers/correspondences published
Tp total number of pages published
The data is here for you to peruse, and you can draw your own conclusions. For example, you can compute from Table 1 the average acceptance rate during the past 10 years, which stands at about 52%. Notice, however, that because the acceptance rate for papers submitted to special issues is usually higher, the average acceptance rate for ordinary submissions is only about 50%.
You may also notice certain trends that particularly stand out
in Table 1. While the number of submissions has fluctuated, it
has not increased significantly since 1993 (the total number
of manuscripts submitted in 1997 was 423, and the number of submissions
during the first six months of 1998 is about 240). Furthermore,
the total number of papers published in the Transactions remained
remarkably steady since 1993, although a substantial increase
is expected this year. What has been steadily growing over the
years is the average length of both correspondence items and
regular papers. As a result, our Transactions has reached a formidable
size, and significant further growth is expected this year. Extrapolating
from the first five issues, we anticipate publishing close to
3000 pages in 1998, and our estimated page budget for 1999 exceeds
3000 pages for the first time in the history of the Transactions.
Only two or three IEEE journals publish more pages, and it costs
us money to publish each page. Thus the growth of the Transactions
places a financial burden on our Society.
Nevertheless, I am strongly opposed to page limits on papers.
I believe that each paper should be just as long as it needs to
be in order to present its results in a lucid and succinct manner.
However, as the average length of papers grows, the Transactions
is clearly in a position to place very high demands on the quality
of papers it accepts. A manuscript submitted to the Transactions
has to be novel, significant, and of interest to our readership,
in order to be publishable. Furthermore, papers in publishable
form must be understandable without undue effort by their intended
audience, which should be as broad as possible. As such, they
have to be reasonably self-contained, well-polished, and absolutely
clear. Writing such papers necessarily requires more effort,
but not necessarily more pages.
Although the Transactions will continue to apply stringent selection
criteria to the papers it accepts for publication, we will publish
the best of the papers we can find in the field of information
theory, very broadly interpreted. In fact, I would like to see
the scope of the Transactions broaden as our discipline broadens
and attracts contributions from diverse areas of scholarship.
A good example of this are key contributions to coding theory
that have come from the computer science community in recent years.
Such papers often provide a different and valuable perspective
that enriches our community, and they are most welcome in the
Transactions. As always, the Transactions will also welcome papers
in such areas as signal processing and applied probability, with
relevance to information theory, but only if these are the best
papers in their fields.
Ensuring the status of IEEE Transactions on Information Theory as the premier journal in our field has to be a team effort. I welcome your suggestions regarding all aspects of the Transactions. Please send your comments to it@csl.uiuc.edu.
The reputation and the vibrancy of our Transactions are the
legacy of editors past, and continuing this tradition of excellence
is a challenge. We are fortunate that information theory is a
field in which profound theoretical investigation often has immediate
and far-reaching impact on technology and practice. This spirit
of truly fundamental innovation has pervaded the Transactions
throughout the years, and will keep advancing the frontiers of
information theory. It is also fortunate that our field has inherent
intellectual beauty that has always attracted, and continues to
attract, some of the best minds to information theory. At the
core, it is this ceaseless flow of exciting first-rate research
that makes our Transactions what they are, and makes my job as
Editor-in-Chief most rewarding.