- Email: [email protected]
A farewell message from the editor-in-chief
Information Processing and Management 52 (2016) 173
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Information Processing and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ipm
Editorial
A farewell message from the editor-in-chief
This issue of Information Processing and Management (IPM) marks the completion of my term as Editor-in-Chief (EiC). I took over from Tefko Saracevic on January 1st, 2008 and by the end of December 2015 I have been in this role for 8 years. This is surely not quite as long as Tefko’s, but certainly longer than I expected, having only initially committed for a maximum of 5 years. I must admit it has been a lot of work, but also a great privilege and honor for me to serve in this capacity. During my term as EiC the number of submissions to the journal more than doubled, confirming IPM as one of the premier venues for submissions of leading research in information access. In addition, with IPM having the same number of issues per year and roughly the same number of pages it previously had, the number of accepted papers remained almost the same, thus lowering the acceptance rate to a level that is now at par with some very selective conferences. Also, we have seen a huge raise in submissions coming from Asia in comparison of those coming from Europe and North America that used to dominate the journal when I took its leadership. This is a trend that I am sure is typical of other journals too and something we will need to get used to in the future. Keeping up with this took a lot of effort not just of me, but also of the journals’ associate editors, that I introduced with the start of my term, and of the excellent editorial board. Both should be properly commended. This privileged position enabled me to learn a lot about the changes the field of information access and retrieval is going through. For sure, in recent times the journal witnessed the raise of interest on social media, that sprang a discussion among the associate editors and myself that I believe was long overdue on what is to be considered in scope for the journal. In fact, the general area of information access is rapidly changing and an active journal has to adapt to these changes. This is partially the reason that I am happy to leave the direction of the IPM in scientifically younger hands than mine. The new EiC will be able to lead the journal deeper into these new areas, renew the Editorial Board to better adapt it to them and make the journal even stronger than it already is. I am just happy to say that I leave him the journal in a very good shape. Before I leave, let me thank just a few of those that helped me throughout the years in this demanding, but also rewarding job. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the great help and support I received from the editorial team at Elsevier. Also, I am very grateful to the past and present Associate Editors and Editorial Board members for their advices and help that made me steer the journal in the right direction. Finally, I would like to thank all the reviewers, authors and readers of IPM; I hope the journal was as good as you expected. Lastly, it is my great pleasure to introduce Dr Bernard J. (Jim) Jansen as the new EiC of IPM. He will take over from me starting with issue 52(3). Dr Jansen has been one of the most prolific contributors to IPM over the past 15 years and is well known to the readers of IPM. He will surely not only keep up the quality and stature of the journal, but make them grow further. I encourage all contributors and readers of the journal to follow his leadership and to help him in this huge task. He will surely need it. I look forward to continuing serving IPM under his leadership myself.
Fabio Crestani University of Lugano (USI), Lugano, Switzerland E-mail address: [email protected] Received 15 December 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2015.12.015 0306-4573/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Information Processing and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ipm
Editorial
A farewell message from the editor-in-chief
This issue of Information Processing and Management (IPM) marks the completion of my term as Editor-in-Chief (EiC). I took over from Tefko Saracevic on January 1st, 2008 and by the end of December 2015 I have been in this role for 8 years. This is surely not quite as long as Tefko’s, but certainly longer than I expected, having only initially committed for a maximum of 5 years. I must admit it has been a lot of work, but also a great privilege and honor for me to serve in this capacity. During my term as EiC the number of submissions to the journal more than doubled, confirming IPM as one of the premier venues for submissions of leading research in information access. In addition, with IPM having the same number of issues per year and roughly the same number of pages it previously had, the number of accepted papers remained almost the same, thus lowering the acceptance rate to a level that is now at par with some very selective conferences. Also, we have seen a huge raise in submissions coming from Asia in comparison of those coming from Europe and North America that used to dominate the journal when I took its leadership. This is a trend that I am sure is typical of other journals too and something we will need to get used to in the future. Keeping up with this took a lot of effort not just of me, but also of the journals’ associate editors, that I introduced with the start of my term, and of the excellent editorial board. Both should be properly commended. This privileged position enabled me to learn a lot about the changes the field of information access and retrieval is going through. For sure, in recent times the journal witnessed the raise of interest on social media, that sprang a discussion among the associate editors and myself that I believe was long overdue on what is to be considered in scope for the journal. In fact, the general area of information access is rapidly changing and an active journal has to adapt to these changes. This is partially the reason that I am happy to leave the direction of the IPM in scientifically younger hands than mine. The new EiC will be able to lead the journal deeper into these new areas, renew the Editorial Board to better adapt it to them and make the journal even stronger than it already is. I am just happy to say that I leave him the journal in a very good shape. Before I leave, let me thank just a few of those that helped me throughout the years in this demanding, but also rewarding job. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the great help and support I received from the editorial team at Elsevier. Also, I am very grateful to the past and present Associate Editors and Editorial Board members for their advices and help that made me steer the journal in the right direction. Finally, I would like to thank all the reviewers, authors and readers of IPM; I hope the journal was as good as you expected. Lastly, it is my great pleasure to introduce Dr Bernard J. (Jim) Jansen as the new EiC of IPM. He will take over from me starting with issue 52(3). Dr Jansen has been one of the most prolific contributors to IPM over the past 15 years and is well known to the readers of IPM. He will surely not only keep up the quality and stature of the journal, but make them grow further. I encourage all contributors and readers of the journal to follow his leadership and to help him in this huge task. He will surely need it. I look forward to continuing serving IPM under his leadership myself.
Fabio Crestani University of Lugano (USI), Lugano, Switzerland E-mail address: [email protected] Received 15 December 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2015.12.015 0306-4573/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.