(IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation) Status Report AdCom Meeting @ IROS’04 Alessandro De Luca, Editor-in-Chief presented by Bill Hamel, RAS VP Publication Activities IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 1

Highlights transition from T-RA smoothly completed in August 2004 T-RO submissions are going up T-RO acceptance rate is going down (quality stays high) 2003 impact factor data: T-RA again top in robotics and record high T-RO reviewing times continue to be short end-users needs are being addressed rapid posting of accepted papers in IEEE Xplore (before publication of issue) submissions of multimedia material on the way IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 2

Submissions to T-RO/T-RA Robotics papers in T-RA have been classified based on Editor handling (Automation = P. Luh + N. Viswanadham; Robotics: the others). The resulting data (242; 228; 235; 261; 342; 380; 281) were decreased by a 5% (=Automation papers handled by other Editors). transition in 2003: T-RA for 3 Q only, T-RO starts in last Q robotics submissions are going up (beating 2002, w/o special issues!) 2004 T-RO + T-ASE forecast = 585 (405 + 180) papers IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 3

Global indices of T-RA/T-RO Acceptance rate: 1998 = 28% 1999 = 23% 2000 = 34% 2001 = 30% 2002 = 31% 2003 = 27,6% (T-RA only) 2003 = 20,0% (T-RO only) 25,9% 2004 = 23,3% (T-RO up to 3 Q) Impact factor: T-RA #1 in Robotics for years 2003: #4 over 47 in Automation & Control #20 over 205 in EE Engineering Impact Factor=the average number of times articles published in the previous two years were cited in a particular year. Cited Half-Life= the number of years, going back from the current year, that account for 50% of the total citations received by the journal in the current year. Thompson ISI determines groupings. Not all pubs are in all groups. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 4

T-RA/T-RO reviewing times At date 10/01 5/02 10/02 9/03 10/03 4/04 9/04 IROS01 ICRA02 IROS02 ICRA03 IROS03 ICRA04 IROS04 Rvw > 9 mo 1 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rvw 6-9 mo 68 7 14 10 8 0 2 1 2 Rvw 3-6 mo 63 59 84 63 58 0 0 22 25 Rvw 0-3 mo 70 110 106 104 68 20 0 80 106 Total in Rvw 202 179 206 177 134 20 2 103 133 Data refers to papers in first review cycle . Times are from date of submission. T-RO data updated as September 26, 2004. Average is 2,5 months (rounding with months from submission, rather than days) Average < 3 months ! IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 5

T-RO in IEEE Xplore Rapid posting (active from start) Links to T-RA (for cont’ed access) IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 6

Multimedia in T-RO authors can submit multimedia material (videos) with their papers multimedia are "playable" files (.midi, .mov. .mpeg, .wav, etc.) or more complex "dataset" files (e.g., raw data with programs to manipulate them) review process linked to paper: multimedia possibly rejected even if paper is accepted T-RO will start as soon as possible (following IEEE guidelines) at no additional costs Multimedia in IEEE Xplore (downloadable next to paper) IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 7

T-RO in Manuscript Central T-RO plans to move to MC v3 in 2005 cost estimation by IEEE fits the budget allowed by RAS-VP Finances (19 K US$ for first year, 11.5 K US$/year at site established) T-RO will continue to monitor usage by T-ASE to anticipate problems 3 months to go on line, including testing configuration requirements document in preparation by T-RO EiC IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Sendai, Japan - 3 October 2004 AdCom Meeting 8