EDS Publications Chair's Report
 |
|
Renuka P. Jindal |
After taking over as publications chair in January 2001, I found several issues that needed attention. Some of these issues find their roots in our innate desire to make things better than we find them. Others surfaced due to advances in technology. And finally some just happened to crop up at this time. In this report, I will give a snapshot of some of these related activities. However, before forging ahead, a more basic need had to be addressed. The EDS Publications Committee, consisting of 5 members, was inadequate to handle the broad charter that it has. In view of this, the committee was expanded to include representation from all sponsored and co-sponsored EDS publications and all EDS technical committees. With these additions, the number of members in this committee jumped to 32.
The three primary factors that an author considers before submitting a manuscript for publication are speed, circulation and quality of the journal. Out of these three parameters, the first two are easily quantified while the third is more nebulous. In the following analysis, we will primarily examine data pertaining to Electron Device Letters (EDL) and Transactions on Electron Devices (T-ED). Let us first discuss the time it takes for us to publish an article. With the centralization of the editorial support in Piscataway, we continue to be close to the top in terms of publication speed, among all IEEE publications. Currently, with help from Professor Arokia Nathan, we are evaluating our next move to WEB based publishing. Under this paradigm, all manuscripts will be handled electronically from submission through review to final publishing. As always, paper copies of the publications will continue to be printed in the foreseeable future. Several IEEE societies have signed up with IEEE's WEB based platform called Manuscript Central, making a big jump from their manual handling procedures. However, we in EDS, have been using PC based software tools to manage our publications for over a decade. Hence, we want to make sure that Manuscript Central provides the necessary level of functionality and flexibility that we require.
 |
|
Figure 1: EDS membership and T-ED
and EDL circulation plotted as a function of the calendar year |
Next, let us examine the circulation data given below in Figure 1. From the graphs it is clear, thanks to aggressive efforts of Professor James Kuo and his predecessors, Professors Paul Chow and Professor Marvin White, EDS membership continues to grow. On the other hand, both EDL and T-ED circulation continues to slide. The onset of decline in the EDL circulation coincides with its unbundling in 1996 when EDL was no longer included in the basic EDS membership. This is understandable. However, T-ED was unbundled in 1982 and the reason for its drop in circulation, beginning 1988, is not clear. Another point to consider is electronic access. Beginning with the 1999 renewal cycle, both T-ED and EDL became available to all our members via the IEEE OPERA/Xploreª. However, the time line suggests that the impact of this free electronic access on total circulation, if anything, has yet to be felt. In view of this and the comments on quality that follow, we are not sure how to interpret the circulation data. Next we will discuss the issue of quality.
How does one assess the quality of a publication? In response to a survey conducted by the Electron Devices Society in 1999, the members articulated a very clear message. One of the most beneficial aspects of their EDS membership was the publications. While this is very gratifying indeed, it is at best a lagging indicator. In other words, while it pats us on the back for a job well done, it does not help us in monitoring our progress and guiding our actions on a real time basis. We would like to have a quantitative measure of the publication quality, that we can measure and infer from on a yearly basis. Hence, we have launched an initiative to understand and develop a quality metric for our publications. A good starting point for this is the Impact Factor data published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Impact Factor is a measure of the frequency with which an "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. To understand the citation data better, we did some preliminary analysis. The results are presented in Figure 2. In the graph we plot number of citations that papers published in a given year in T-ED received in a later year, divided by the total number of papers published in that given year. This is plotted as a function of the number of years elapsed from the original publication date. The data is presented for 17 years from 1981 through 1998. All the years tend to follow a similar trend, peaking after 3 years with a "bandwidth"of roughly 6 years. This goes to show that the general characteristics of the publication are intact over this long period. However several interesting questions follow.
 |
|
Figure 2: Normalized number of citations
plotted against the number of years elapsed since the original
publication with the year of publication as a parameter
|
Is the citation statistics spread uniformly across all papers? Is it heavily influenced by a selected few? If indeed the statistics is heavily influenced by a handful of contributions, what type of results did these papers report? How were these manuscripts rated in our internal editorial review process? Did these papers win any awards? Did special issues play any role in this. Do review papers help? And finally, are these highly cited papers indeed responsible for the results of the EDS survey or is there another metric involved? These and other questions are not easy to answer, but we intend to dig deeper.
On the financial side, the picture looks very healthy. Over these years, we have evolved to generate a healthy annual surplus for the society to support a plethora of activities related to member services. We hope to continue to do so in the future but have to plan it carefully in view of almost ubiquitous electronic access of information. It should be noted that the surplus is being generated primarily due to increases in non-member and All Society Periodicals Package subscription rates, while keeping operating costs under control. However, increased revenue over at best a flat subscription base is always a tricky proposition.
On the technical side, there are changes coming too. As time marches on, different technologies assume importance. This is especially true in the field of Electron Devices. A good example is the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors over the last 50 some years. In August of 1997, we published a special issue of Transactions on Electron Devices focusing on "Organic and Polymeric Active Devices". Since then, over the last five years, this area has enjoyed substantial growth, both in terms of technology maturity as well as commercial applications. In fact, one of the winners of the EDS Paul Rappaport award for 2001 dealt with organic thin-film transistors. To highlight the synergy between this burgeoning activity and the more traditional electron device community, we are planning to update the Field of Interest (FOI) Statement of the society.
One of the most rewarding duties as an office bearer of the society is to recognize technical contributions. Over the years, I realized that EDL papers never made it to the finals for the Paul Rappaport Award. Apparently this had to do with the mandated brevity of the contributions consistent with the scope of EDL. I am pleased to report that we have now corrected this situation by instituting another award, exclusively for papers published in EDL. This award has been named after, in today's parlance, the founding editor-in-chief of the publication, George E. Smith. The award will be given for the first time in 2003, for the best paper published in Electron Device Letters, in calendar year 2002. Among other selection criteria an equally important one is adequate and fair referencing of prior art. This brings me to my next topic.
One of the pet peeves that I hear about from colleagues at meetings and conferences, is inadequate referencing of prior art. In the not-so-old days, literature search was a major undertaking. One had to physically visit a library, pull the bound volume from the rack and make a photocopy. This is changing now. Increasingly, the literature is available on line for us to browse and print. However, the conversion of information from paper to electronic form is far from complete. For the Electron Devices area, we only go back to 1988 for T-ED and EDL on IEEE Xploreª. For IEDM the IEL package goes back to 1998. We are moving decisively to correct this situation. The plan is to make available everything that was ever published in T-ED, EDL and IEDM to all our members. At the last AdCom meeting, we allocated funds for a conversion of all pre-1988 EDL papers into digital format. Conversion of all pre-1988 T-ED will follow hopefully within a year along with the IEDM. However, when an electronic search does not reveal any prior references, please realize its limitation. Professionalism demands that we make the extra effort to dig up prior work the old-fashioned way. Going forward, inadequate referencing of prior art, will be one reason for rejection of submissions to all EDS publications. Further, papers deficient in this aspect will be handicapped when being considered for EDS/IEEE awards. Please take the time to find out what has been done, not only in your immediate sphere of influence, but also outside it. This will create the healthy environment where prior knowledge is leveraged to its fullest extent, shortening R&D cycles and accelerating the pace of knowledge creation. Also it will result in proper credit being given to where it is due. This should be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Electron Devices Society, I want to thank everyone for supporting EDS publications in their capacity as authors, reviewers and editors. We aspire to continue to be the choice forum, for the dissemination of prized technical information, in the field of Electron Devices. Electronic distribution of information is here with us to stay. If you have any ideas on how we can make it easier and more efficient for you to generate and access this information, please let me know. I am looking forward to your suggestions.
Renuka Jindal
Publications Chair, Electron Devices Society
Agere Systems
Bell Labs Room 2D-329
600 Mountain Avenue
Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USA
r.jindal@ieee.org