2024 IEEE Vice President, Publication Services and Products

Sergio Benedetto

IEEE Vice President-Publication Services and Products

Sergio Benedetto is an Emeritus Professor at Politecnico di Torino. Active for more than 40 years in the field of digital communications, he has coauthored 5 books and over 250 papers. His publications have received more than 20,000 citations, with about 1,400 citations each for 2 of them. He has been for many years an “ISI highly cited researcher”.

He has received the "Premio Siemens per le Telecomunicazioni" in 1973, the "Premio Bianchi" of AEI in 1974, the "Premio Bonavera" in 1976, the "Gold Medal Award of Siemens Telecomunicazioni" in 1993 and 1995, the "Italgas International Prize for Research and Technological Innovation" in 1998, the “Cristoforo Colombo International Award for Communications” in 2006, and the “IEEE Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong Award” in 2008.

Sergio has been a member of the Board of Directors of ANVUR, the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of Italian Universities and Research Centers from May 2011 until May 2, 2016. In that position, he has directed two nationwide research assessments involving all active Italian researchers in universities and research centers.

Significant IEEE Activities

COMMITTEES/BOARDS: IEEE TAB: 1/1/2014-31/12/2015, Alexander Graham Bell Medal Committee: 10/1/2009-30/9/2012, IEEE TAB Periodicals Committee: 1/1/2009-31/12/2013, IEEE PSPB MAL: 2016-2018, 2020, PSPB N&A Member: 1/1/2017-19/3/2018, 2021-2022, PSPB Strategic Planning Committee Member: 1/1/2013-31/12/2017, PSPB Strategic Planning Committee Vice-Chair: 1/1/2018-31/12/2018, IEEE Ad Hoc on the Future of Information and Convening Member: 11/1/2015-31/12/2015, IEEE Ad Hoc on Infrastructure Strategy Growth Member: 6/11/2013-31/12/2014, IEEE Publishing Conduct Committee Member: 1/1/2017-31/12/2018, IEEE Conferences Committee Member: 1/1/2016-31/12/2017, IEEE Conference Quality Committee Member: 1/1/2016-31/12/2017, TAB PRAC Member: 1/1/2017-31/12/2019, IEEE MGA Member: 1/1/2018-31/12/2018, IEEE Ad Hoc Committee on Publications Strategy Chair: 1/1-31/12/2019, IEEE Division 3 Director (and IEEE Board of Directors): 1/1/2019-31/12/2021, IEEE PSPB Vice Chair: 1/1/2021-31/12/2021, IEEE TAB-PSPB Shared Ad hoc on Pubs Strategy Implementation Sub Committee Chair: 1/1/2021-31/12/2021, PSPB chair and VP-Pub, 2023

SOCIETY: IEEE Communications Society: Vice President of Technical Activities 1/1/2006-31/12/2007, Vice-President for Publications: 1/1/2008-31/12/2009, Vice President for Member Relations: 1/1/2010-31/12/2011, President-Elect: 1/1/2013-31/12/2103, President: 1/1/2014-31/12/2015, Nominations and Elections Committee Chair: 1/1/2017-31/12/2018, Fellow Evaluating Committee Chair: 1/1/2018-31/12/2018.

Relevant Experience

I worked in IEEE Communications Society first and then in IEEE in various positions related to publications and related products: I have been elected as the first ComSoc VP of Publications, I was a member of the Periodical Committee and of the Publications and Advisory Review Committee, a MAL and Vice Chair of PSPB and a member of PSPB Strategic Planning Committee, the Chair of the Presidential Committee on Publications Strategy. In that position I presented to IEEE BoD a comprehensive plan (unanimously approved by the IEEE Board of Directors in 2019) to better position IEEE in the Open Access arena. In TAB, as President of the Communications Society, I have been one of the leaders of the societies Presidents movement advocating a better financial transparency in IEEE budget. Last but not least, I am now IEEE VP-Pub and Chair of PSPB.

My knowledge of the IEEE publications and related products is quite significant, and will allow me to continue guiding the actions of the PSP Board in a very effective way. In particular, I mention my expertise of the Open Access issue, which I consider now the most important threat (and opportunity) for IEEE future. Recently, as Chair of the OA subcommittee of the TAB-PSPB Joint Ad Hoc on Publications Strategy, I devised an algorithm to be included in the IEL agreements with customers interested in the Read only part (such as industries and not research-oriented universities) to take into account the evolving relevance of OA articles in Xplore.

Why should we select you to serve in this position?

In my position of Emeritus Professor, I have the free time needed to continue covering for another year the duties of the Vp Pub. I have gain wide experience in collaborating with the IEEE staff members in the publication departments. I have gained over the years an excellent understanding of TAB and PSPB, which is a necessary condition to continue and enhance the interbody collaboration. With the VP-TAB, I have appointed three joint Ad Hocs enhancing the collaborations between the two boards. My knowledge of the open science scenario will be crucial in driving the IEEE accelerated pace toward a successful transition to open access and open science. As a member of the 2018 PSPB Strategic Planning Committee I propose the creation of a unified IEEE Author Portal capable of (quoting from my 2018 document): "routing article to the appropriate publication, posting the article in a pre-print repository, access easily just-in-time information on the article status, downloading revised version with answers to reviewers if accepted with revision, routing article to another publication if rejected, suggest ways to publicize the published articles to interested audiences, and find up-to-date post-publication bibliometric indicators". After four years the Author Portal has been now successfully implemented. Starting in my VP-Pub position, I announced to the PSP Board members and agreed with the staff ambitious goals that will require longer than one year to be fully accomplished. Thus, having one more year will be crucial to advance and reinforce IEEE position in the publication domain.

Position Statement

IEEE has an invaluable asset: the best scientists in the IEEE field of interest willing to serve their community as volunteers, and the main goal of the IEEE governance should be to offer them a strong motivation to stay within the organization as active members. The capacity of devising strategic plans and let implementation rapidly following is essential for IEEE, which operates in the archival publishing and conference organization arena that is dotted with more agile and rapidly reacting competitors.
In the near future, severe challenges will have to be faced and successfully taken care of: the rapidly extending open access requirements and mandates, the increasing number and types of publication misconduct, the appearing of new form of vetting technical content beyond the classical peer review process, the requirement of research reproducibility. If confirmed for the second year in the role, I will work to: continue the collaboration alreday started between TAB and PSPB, reduce the overlap between Committees with similar scopes and ensure that their conclusions reach the Board of Directors for discussion and approval, enlarge the discussion on Open Access to encompass the broader area of Open Science, facilitate the devising and experimentation of new products to at least partially overcome the inevitable reduction in revenues due to open access, introduce AI tools to improve and facilitate various operations in the publication activity, reinforce the efforts in preventing, discovering, sanctioning and exposing publication misconduct and its authors