State of the Journal

AT time of writing (November 2014), I have been editor in chief for nearly 23 months and TPAMI is in strong shape. The institution is strong enough to keep ticking under a change of editors. TPAMI is made strong by two factors. Our community is a fertile source of exciting intellectual creations and scientific discoveries, and this factor ensures there are fine papers for the journal to publish. The other factor is the large community of volunteers who find and promote strong papers. I can name the associate editors in chief (AEIC’s) over this period, Amir Globerson, Sing-Bing Kang, Kyoung-Mu Lee, Dale Schuurmans, Stan Sclaroff, Tinne Tuytelaars, and Max Welling. Each has brought tremendous effort, skill, and professionalism to the role. Named elsewhere are the associate editors, who do much of the work of ensuring papers find the right referees. Too many to name are the referees and the authors. The journal flourishes through the efforts of all these volunteers, and I thank them. There have been some changes at TPAMI. As of writing, we have seven AEIC’s, though by the time you read this Sing Bing Kang’s term will have come to an end. The entire TPAMI community owes Sing Bing a great debt. He has consistently made careful knowledgeable sensible conscientious and well-informed contributions to the institution. Since the last state of the journal editorial, Amir Globerson, Kyoung-Mu Lee, Dale Schuurmans, and Tinne Tuytelaars have joined as AEIC’s. I expect the journal to be running at a steady state of six AEIC’s. Generally, AEIC’s decide which papers should proceed to review (and write brief notes explaining why others should not, which is demanding work); allocate those papers to AE’s; and advise me and correct my errors of commission and omission. Having a relatively large pool of AEIC’s allows TPAMI to benefit from a broad range of expertise; allows the work to be done in shifts; and ensures that there is a broad pool of opinion for me to consult when I consider changes. You will notice that the pool of AE’s has expanded, too. I thank the new AE’s for their courage. I thank current AE’s for their hard work. Over the year some AE’s have left us, and I thank them for their service and wish them productive uses for their new free time. I can fill some of the remaining space with statistics. In 2013, TPAMI received 959 submissions, of which 151 were accepted. By November 2014, TPAMI had received 871 submissions, of which 173 were accepted. I try to ensure the journal is efficient at handling papers, but frustrating delays do still occur, and I believe this situation is getting slightly worse, rather than slightly better. I chase the sources of delay fairly actively (you knowwho you are!), but it is occasionally difficult to compel volunteers to act as swiftly as one wants. I apologize to authors affected by delays, and I shall try to become shriller and more effective in chasing the tardy. I receive occasional appeals as editor in chief, and I try to handle these efficiently. While I do not encourage the practice of appealing to the editor in chief, which is not usually successful because the editorial board is careful, I do accept the need for an appeal process. Just remember that I adjudicate appeals purely on questions of procedure, because I am not willing to substitute my technical judgment for that of AEIC’s, AE’s and referees. Remember also that my email is very full, and I sometimes miss appeals. In earlier editorials I committed the journal to shrink the gap between what TPAMI offers to authors and what, say, JMLR offers to authors in open access. This remains an important goal, and I have started in that direction. There isn’t much to report yet. I committed myself to ensuring that the TPAMI EIC is responsible to a steering committee rather than the Computer Society. In practice, though not yet in paperwork, that goal has been achieved. I will finish by thanking the professional staff at the Computer Society, who contribute to the efficient functioning of the journal in ways that only the EIC really sees, and my family for various acts of tolerance and support.