IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 1 IEEE Transactions on Robotics Status Report AdCom Autumn’05 Alessandro De Luca, Editor-in-Chief presented by Bill Hamel, RAS VP Publication Activities

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 2 Highlights  smooth transition to two new Editors and many new AEs ∼ completed  submissions are steady up, with acceptance rate reasonably low  reviewing times continue to be very short  reduced publication queue at IEEE  2004 impact factor: a new record high  multimedia submissions in action  enhancing revenue indices (impact factor, Xplore hits) for T-RO

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 3 Editors’ transition MayJunJulAugSepOct 12 Lynne Parker stop AE of new papers E start of new papers E full in duty ✔ Seth Hutchinson stop E of new papers stop E ✔ 4 papers in 1st review 2 CA papers Kevin Lynch stop AE of new papers E start of new papers E full in duty ✔ Ian Walker stop E of new papers stop E ✔ 11 papers in in 1st review 8 CA papers

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 4 T-RO/T-RA submissions robotics submissions are up, though leveling off: 2005 will beat record submissions of T-RA 2002 (without automation & special issues) note on 2003 transition: T-RA for first 3Q only, T-RO started in last Q

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 5 T-RO/T-RA acceptance rate T-RA 1998 = 28% 1999 = 23% 2000 = 34% 2001 = 30% 2002 = 31% 2003 = 28,6% T-RO 2003 = 19,7% 2004 = 24,3% 2005 = 24,6% (up to 3rd Q) current total T-RO = 23,6% acceptance rate = (accepted + conditionally accepted) (reviewed submissions - withdrawals)

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 6 T-RO/T-RA reviewing times At date5/02 10/02 9/03 10/03 4/04 9/04 4/05 10/05 ICRA02 IROS02 ICRA03 IROS03 ICRA04 IROS04 ICRA05 autumn Rvw > 9 mo Rvw 6-9 mo Rvw 3-6 mo Rvw 0-3 mo Total in Rvw T-RAT-RO  over the years, reduced overall work-in-process (despite the large growth of submissions)

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 7 T-RO reviewing times  a closer look shows rather steady data (112 T-RO papers in review) 82 in 0-3 months22 in 3-6 months8 in 6-9 months (1 in mo 9, 3 in mo 8)  average is, for third time in a row (since 1.5 y), less than 3 months!!  close to future IEEE 90/90 target: 73%/90 days or 90%/130 days

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 8 T-RO/T-RA publication within -5% (‘99-‘00) or +5% (‘03-‘04) of budget Year Page Budget Pages Pages/RegPaper T-RAT-RO will go up to 1292 pages (using “max +20%” allowed by IEEE this year) max 10 pages allowed in T-RO w/o charge! Up to T-RO Oct 05 issue

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 9 … looking into 2006 Page budget in 2006 T-RO consolidated a larger budget of 1292 pages (+5% allowed) Publication queue in T-RO (as of Oct 4, 2005) T-RA papers T-RO reg T-RO short accepted064 at EiC053 at IEEE02212 all papers are Rapid Posted in Xplore ALL pending papers will be published within Feb 2006 issue FebAprJunAugOctDec

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 10 Multimedia in T-RO  advertised in T-RO web site (Jul), T-RO cover (Aug), RAS e-news (Aug), R&A Mag (Sep)  authors have started submitting videos with their papers  7 papers: 1 reject, 2 revise, 3 in review, 1 accepted (at IEEE) few compatibility problems were experienced (codecs not available) how it will appear in IEEE Xplore 2.1 (downloadable next to paper)

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 11 T-RO in IEEE Xplore 2.1 Links to T-RA (for cont’ed access) Rapid Posting (currently with papers for Dec 05 issue) Cover pages also in electronic form Full text search Institutional access (hits for RAS revenues)

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 12 Enhancing revenue indices Impact factor check for relevant T-RO citations during review process encourage special issues and authoritative tutorials a “call for special issues” will soon appear in T-RO/RAM Xplore hits timeliness of review and publication processes ✔ larger number of published papers keeping a high page budget availability of multimedia ✔ rapid posting of papers ✔ access from institutional sites … but never compromise on quality!

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society San Francisco, CA - 16 October 2005 AdCom Meeting 13 Manuscript Central update  T-RO continues monitoring the experience of T-ASE  3 months to go on line, including testing  “home-made” current web solution has been improved, is still more flexible for editorial reports, and definitely cheaper (but labour intensive) T-RO shifted move to Manuscript Central v3 to mid 2006 (at least)