Signal Processing - November 2016 - 3

FROM THE EDITOR
Min Wu | Editor-in-Chief | minwu@umd.edu

Publishing Articles in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine

he 2016 update of Journal Citation
Report (JCR) was recently released
by Thomson Reuters. Based on 2015
citation data for literature within the
sciences and social sciences, IEEE Signal
Processing Magazine (SPM) has continued
to score high in this annual citation study.
Its journal impact factor in this 2016
release reached 6.67, the highest ever in
SPM's history! It is in the top 1% out of
more than 250 publications in the electrical
and electronics category examined by the
JCR and continues to be the top-ranked
magazine in the IEEE.
SPM's sustained success could not be
possible without the tireless effort from
our area editors and associate editors on
both the current team and the teams before. They work with prospective authors
to solicit articles on timely topics of broad
interests, oversee peer reviews, and polish
the accepted articles until the final stage
of production. The Publications Board of
the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS)
initiated an annual recognition to honor
the contributions of outstanding editors
and editorial board members. For this inaugural year, Dr. Fulvio Gini, area editor
for special issues in 2012-2014, and Dr.
Gwenael Doerr, area editor for columns
and forum in 2015-2016, were recognized
for their outstanding contributions. I extend my heartfelt congratulations and appreciation to them!
As another essential part of our team,
senior editorial board members offer vital
advice. I would like to take this opportunity

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2016.2610482
Date of publication: 4 November 2016

to thank six retiring board members for
their valuable contributions. We appreciate the prompt and thoughtful feedback
by Dr. Isabel Trancoso and Dr. Hing
Cheung So on nearly every proposal for
special issues and feature articles sent to
the editorial board; Dr. Pramod Varshney, Dr. Hamid Krim, and Dr. Patrick
Flandrin offered constructive input on
the magazine's policy and potential topics; Dr. Z. Jane Wang took the lead in
organizing a wonderful pilot of a feature
articles cluster-the May 2016 issue on
brain analytics, allowing the magazine to
develop a synergistic option between feature articles and a special issue. Thanks
also go to two retiring area editors, Dr.
Wade Trappe and Dr. Gwenaël Doërr, for
their contributions to special issues and
columns, respectively, and a warm welcome to Dr. Douglas O'Shaughnessy as
our new area editor for special issues.
By far, the most important part of any
successful publication is the authors, who,
in our case, also include the guest editors
proposing and organizing special issues
and article clusters or series. They are the
heroes behind the magazine's sustained
high impact.
When welcoming authors from around
the world, we note that many initial submissions often have to be declined for
being out of scope, because our magazine is
very different from other publications that
focus on reporting new research results.
Instead, SPM publishes tutorial-style
surveys, overviews, and column articles
of interest to the broad signal processing
professionals and related communities. We
do not consider papers proposing brand
IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE

November 2016

new algorithms that have not been sufficiently examined by the technical community, and these types of articles should
be sent to journals. Articles also need
to be written in an accessible style for a
audience broader than experts only, using
visually appealing illustrations and keeping mathematical equations and symbols
to a minimum.
We strongly suggest prospective authors read SPM's online "Information for
Authors" [1] and refer to recently published
articles in the magazine for examples. Before working on a full-length feature article or organizing a special issue/section
on a central theme of sufficient technical
interests and maturity, authors should first
prepare a short proposal as outlined in the
author guide. Complementing feature
articles and special issue articles in each
issue are shorter articles in columns and
forums on a wide range of topics in signal
processing, and they are divided in categories with different objectives and style.
Authors wishing to submit an article or a
proposal are encouraged to contact me or
the respective area editor. We look forward
to working with you and hope that you
consider SPM as your top choice in which
to publish when you have source material
in the magazine's scope and style.

Reference

[1] IEEE Signal Processing Magazine: Information for
Authors. [Online]. Available: http://signalprocessingsociety.org/publications-resources/ieee-signalprocessing-magazine/information-authors-spm

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http://signalprocessing http://www.society.org/publications-resources/ieee-signal

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signal Processing - November 2016