Computational Intelligence - August 2012 - 3

President's
Message

Marios M. Polycarpou
University of Cyprus, CYPRUS

Publish or Perish, but Where?

or most people, summer means vacation time-take it easy,
relax and enjoy. For a lot of the researchers, summer is a good
time to catch up on their research and finish writing some of
their work that has been listed as "to be submitted" for a long time.
In the academic world, research publications have traditionally played
the most crucial role in career advancement, opening doors for promotion, tenure, high profile positions, awards, and other sought-after
goodies. Of course, research funding also plays a key role in career development, however there is high correlation between a solid publication record and a solid research
funding record. The impact arrow between publications and funding is in fact bidirectional: good publications help to obtain research funding, while research funding
provides the resources (personnel, equipment, travel) to enhance the publication record.
Therefore, by all accounts, a "solid publication record" reflects academic talent and
is key to academic success. However, what is considered a solid publication record is
changing, making it difficult for young researchers to know what they should aim at. A
key issue is the quality versus quantity dilemma, which is a common discussion item in
promotion and awards committees. To help clarify the meaning of "quality," several
quality measures, both for journals and for individual authors, have arisen: citation
number, impact factor; cited half-life, PageRank, eigenfactor, h-index, g-index, etc.
Despite all the fancy measures, things are more confusing than they were 30 years ago
when there were no such measures but everybody just knew the top journals in a field.
Currently, there are so many journals and conferences that it is fair to say that
you can pretty much publish anything you want in some journal or conference.
Despite the over-abundance of existing venues for publication, new journal titles
and conferences are being initiated at a rapid rate. The number of invitations that I
receive prompting me to submit a paper or to lead a special issue in a certain journal is increasing exponentially. In this climate of myriad of publications, it is important to stick to the same old principles of trying to publish high quality work in
high quality journals. Despite all the confusion, there is still a consensus regarding
which are the best journals in the field. A reasonable rule-of-thumb is to publish
where the top people in the field are publishing.
I believe there will be significant changes in the overall publication modus operandi
during the next 10-20 years, especially with the proliferation of open access publications.
Nobody really knows how things will play out, but until we find out, we can continue
seeking to publish few high quality papers in the established leading journals of our field.
The IEEE Computational Intelligence Society will continue to support top publications
by sponsoring leading journals in computational intelligence, such as the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, IEEE
Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and
AI in Games, and the IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2012.2201529
Date of publication: 12 July 2012

CIS Society Officers
President - Marios M. Polycarpou,
University of Cyprus, CYPRUS
Past President - Gary G.Yen,
Oklahoma State University, USA
Vice President - Conferences- Gary B. Fogel,
Natural Selection, Inc., USA
Vice President - Education- Jennie Si,
Arizona State University, USA
Vice President - Finances- Piero P. Bonissone,
General Electric Co., USA
Vice President - Members ActivitiesPablo A. Estevez, University of Chile, CHILE
Vice President - Publications- Xin Yao,
University of Birmingham, UK
Vice President - Technical ActivitiesHisao Ishibuchi, Osaka Prefecture
University, JAPAN
Division X Director - Vincenzo Piuri,
University of Milan, ITALY
Publication Editors
IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks
Derong Liu, University of Illinois, Chicago,
USA
IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems
Chin-Teng Lin, National Chiao Tung
University,TAIWAN
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Garrison Greenwood, Portland
State University, USA
IEEE Transactions on Computational
Intelligence and AI in Games
Simon Lucas, University of Essex, UK
IEEE Transactions on Autonomous
Mental Development
Zhengyou Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA
Administrative Committee
Term ending in 2012:
Oscar Cordón, European Centre for
Soft Computing, SPAIN
Robert Kozma, University of Memphis, USA
Nikhil R. Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, INDIA
Jose C. Principe, University of Florida, USA
Lipo Wang, Nanyang Technological University,
SINGAPORE
Term ending in 2013:
Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier,
University Pierre et Marie Curie, FRANCE
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences,
POLAND
Simon Lucas, University of Essex, UK
Luis Magdalena, European Centre for
Soft Computing, SPAIN
Jerry M. Mendel, University of Southern
California, USA
Term ending in 2014:
Cesare Alippi, Politecnico di Milano, ITALY
Pau-Choo (Julia) Chung, National Cheng
Kung University,TAIWAN
Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, UK
James M. Keller, University of
Missouri-Columbia, USA
Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2012.2204925

AUGUST 2012 | IEEE COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE

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