News (cont’d)“The articles are by academics, for academics.”Half of <strong>IEEE</strong> members workin industry. Providing more practicalcontent without diluting the quality ofour publications is a major challenge.Half of <strong>IEEE</strong>’s revenues result fromthe sale of publications. “Open access,”the worldwide movement to disseminatescholarly research literature online,free of charge, threatens these revenues.QUESTION:What are the majorchanges <strong>IEEE</strong> needsto be making?Lew Terman: Membership: increase(and actively market) membership benefitsaround the world, broaden thebase of membership such as aggressivelymoving into software, services,applications and solutions. Follow upthe China initiative with similar effortsfor India and Eastern Europe.Publications: establish a faster trackfor new publications, pilot new publicationsthat are more practically-oriented,and establish a reward system forreducing the submission-to-publicationtime. Develop the best searchcapability for technical material, andmake it a membership benefit.Education: the Expert Now programfor continuing education is off to anexcellent start; aggressively push it andmake it available to members.Financial: drive good financialbehavior for Operating Units withreserves by giving them more access tothose reserves – as the ratio of the O/U’sreserves to expenses increases, allowaccess to an increased percentage of thereserves. Continue to work on decreasingthe Infrastructure Charge andincreasing revenues, though not at thecost of making <strong>IEEE</strong>’s prime goalincreased surpluses/reserves. Develop along-term financial plan/goals for the<strong>IEEE</strong> reserves.Governance: the current governancestructure is not egregiously broken;continue to work towards streamliningoperations and governmental efficiency.Finally, work across the <strong>IEEE</strong> majorBoards to establish a spirit of workingtogether, understanding each othersproblems, and working with staff onidentifying and solving tactical andstrategic problems.John Vig: To improve the <strong>IEEE</strong>’s agility,e.g., with respect to entering newtechnologies, I have proposed that weestablish an <strong>IEEE</strong> Venture Capital Fund.Any person could propose an idea, and,if the idea is judged to be worthy, receiveup to $100,000 to implement, or showthe feasibility of, the idea.To provide practical content, I haveproposed that we create a new categoryof peer-reviewed publications, “applicationnotes” - which would include“how-to’s,” and case studies; and thatwe digitize many of the ~600 <strong>IEEE</strong>Press books and make them available tomembers, and members only, for free.The <strong>IEEE</strong> should be more willing totake prudent risks, and it should bemore willing to terminate unsuccessfulactivities.To explore new ideas, the <strong>IEEE</strong>should experiment more – with newmembership models, dues structures,publication models (e.g., new forms ofpeer review), etc.The <strong>IEEE</strong> needs to improve its communicationswith members. TheInstitute should become a real newspaper,i.e., it should report both the goodand the bad, and it should publish controversialviews, even when such viewsmay displease the leadership.The <strong>IEEE</strong> should join with otherengineering and scientific organizationsto establish a public relationscampaign to improve the image ofengineering and science.QUESTION:What are some of theimportant challenges facing<strong>IEEE</strong> as a publisher inservice to its membership?Lew Terman: Issues raised by OpenAccess will need to be anticipated andmanaged. A major implication is to atleast maintain the revenue streamwhich our publications generate. <strong>IEEE</strong>needs to help members navigate themass of data available from <strong>IEEE</strong>, othertechnical publications, and on the web.Practical publications need to be developedwith the collaboration of RABand TAB. Goals for article publicationtimeliness must be set, and rewardsestablished for publications to meet orexceed the goals. Establish a fastapproval track for new publications.Maintain the importance of peerreview. Keep monitoring the possibilityof going to all electronic publishing,and establish when or if it should occurwell before any critical point occurs.John Vig: Open access, the worldwidemovement to disseminate scientificand scholarly research literature online,free of charge is a serious challengebecause half of <strong>IEEE</strong>’s revenues resultfrom the sale of publications. Google,at www.scholar.google.com and similarservices, now make it easier to findthe free copies of publications. Paperscan be read without having to pay thepublishers.Delayed open access, e.g., makingpublications open access two yearsafter publication, would not be asdamaging. It would allow the <strong>IEEE</strong> tomaintain most of its publication revenueswhile fulfilling its mission ofbeing “for the benefit of humanity andthe profession.”A frequently heard criticism of<strong>IEEE</strong> publications is that they are primarily“by academics, for academics;”they are not useful for practitioners.About half of our membership is fromindustry. If our publications are notuseful for the majority of our members,then we have a serious problem.I have proposed three solutions tothis problem. One is to ask authors toprovide, voluntarily, a “practicalimpact statement” with their papers.The second is to create a new class ofpeer reviewed publications, “applica-14 <strong>IEEE</strong> LEOS <strong>NEWS</strong>LETTER August 2006
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