IEEE Xplore grew in content, subscribers, and partnerships in 2011, creating a more robust digital platform and efficient user experience.
ABOVE: Professor Junfeng Zong, (left) president of Tsinghua University Press, and 2011 IEEE President Moshe Kam (left) shake hands at the signing ceremony announcing the agreement to incorporate the Tsinghua Science and Technologyjournal into IEEE Xplore.
The range of technical disciplines represented and the number of documents published in IEEE Xplore has grown significantly over the past several years. In 2011, IEEE Xplore surpassed 3 million documents.
Other accomplishments included the launch of the IEEE Corporate Workgroups product, specifically designed for smaller companies, which expanded the customer base of IEEE Xplore. Additional enhancements that improved the user experience include a prototype for next-generation interactive research articles (XML content), the IEEE Standards Dictionary Online, the IEEE Redline Version of Standards, IET Enterprise Suite, and a mobile platform for the National Electrical Safety Code®.
New International Partnerships Provide Access to Renowned Journals
To further enhance its value to the global research community, IEEE reached agreements with Tsinghua University Press and the Beijing Institute of Aerospace Information. These agreements make IEEE the exclusive worldwide distributor of English language versions of the notable journals Tsinghua Science and Technology and the Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics.
In addition, IEEE expanded its Shibboleth® coverage by joining the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) federation. Shibboleth is standards-based, open source software that enables single Web sign-on across or within organizational boundaries, simplifying the management of identity and permissions for organizations. The CERNET federation is part of the CERNET Authentication and Resource Sharing Infrastructure (CARSI) project, an inter-institutional authentication and authorization project initiated by China’s Peking University. Membership in CERNET gives users secure access to IEEE Xplore without requiring them to be present at their institution. Peking University, Shenzhen University, and Tsinghua University are now using this software in China.
A 2011 agreement with the German Electrical Engineering Society (VDE) gives IEEE Xplore subscribers access to more than 3,000 English language papers from more than 20 VDE annual conferences. About 1,000 new papers will be added to the library each year.
eBooks: New Titles Added, Classics Remain Popular
The IEEE-Wiley eBooks Library continued to expand its offerings in 2011, with the addition of 40 new eBooks from Wiley-IEEE Press, 13 IEEE Standards Information Network titles, and 25 IEEE Computer Society Press titles.
IEEE eLearning Library Joins iTunes® U
Late in the year, the IEEE eLearning Library made its debut on iTunes U, Apple’s online resource for learning materials published by leaders in education. Visitors can now find several hundred video and audio files from IEEE societies and the IEEE Global History Network. The IEEE eLearning Library is a series of online learning tutorials based on IEEE educational content from IEEE conferences around the world. In 2011, it surpassed 300 tutorials, with the launch of several new series, including “Engineering Ethics” and “Dual Port SRAM Design.”
Three New Publications Launched
IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems is a quarterly publication aimed at research in green systems, ambient intelligence, sensor networks, nanotechnology, smart power, bio-inspired electronics and bioinformatics, security, and other areas. The publication is sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.
IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics (PV) is a quarterly publication covering fundamentals and new concepts, PV systems, thin-film solar cells, concentrator solar cells, organic PV, and advances in PV characterization. The IEEE Electron Devices and the IEEE Power & Energy Societies are sponsoring the journal.
IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology is dedicated to research on devices and systems operating in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. The biannual publication covers basic science and applications of the THz spectrum in biology, medicine, imaging, atmospheric and environmental science, remote sensing, radio astronomy, spectroscopy, telecommunications, and security. The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society is the journal’s sponsor.
IEEE Expands Open Access
IEEE carried out key elements of the action plan for open-access publishing in 2011, extending the program begun the previous year. All IEEE journals produced by IEEE Publishing Operations, the IEEE Computer Society, and the IEEE Communications Society offer the open-access option, giving authors the opportunity to make their articles available at no cost to readers in the IEEE Xplore digital library.
