My term as VP Publications started in January 2014 and I have already learned quite a lot about many of the strategic directions IEEE and PES are taking with respect to keeping pace with rapidly changing publications environment.

First and foremost, the IEEE PES is proud to announce the launch of our first entirely open-access journal – the IEEE Power & Energy Technology Systems Journal.  Open access articles are provided with unrestricted online access through IEEE Xplore.  The authors bear the publication costs ($1,350 per manuscript up to a maximum of 8 published pages with an additional $120 per page beyond 8 pages).  Manuscripts are submitted through ScholarOne’s Manuscript Central and all articles are subject to a rigorous peer review process.  IEEE Power and Energy Technology Systems Journal is a technical journal containing practice-oriented articles focusing on the development, planning, design, construction, maintenance, installation and operation of equipment, structures, materials and power systems for the safe, sustainable, economic, and reliable conversion, generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and usage of electric energy, including its measurement and control.  Due to the open access nature of the journal, the time from submission to publication is expected to be shorter than one of the Transactions.  Scott Sudhoff (sudhoff@ecn.purdue.edu) is the inaugural editor-in-chief.

The IEEE Electrification Magazinemade its debut in September 2013 and it’s off to a great start.  The third issue was published in March 2014. IEEE Electrification Magazine is a quarterly magazine dedicated to disseminating information on all matters related to microgrids onboard electric vehicles, ships, trains, planes, and off-grid applications.  Interested authors are encouraged to contact the editor-in-chief Saifur Rahman (s.rahman@ieee.org).

Initial feedback and results from the PES open-access options with the five transactions (Power Systems, Power Delivery, Energy Conversion, Smart Grid, and Sustainable Energy) have been positive.  The number of authors electing to publish via open access is increasing.  For these five transactions, the submission and review process are the same as for traditional manuscripts;  the reviewers are not informed that the authors have elected the open-access option.  For this reason, the acceptance rates of the open-access articles are commensurate with traditional publication.

IEEE Xplore is continually upgraded to improve functionality to better serve as a publication database.  Recent upgrades now enable authors to publish their names in their native written language in conjunction with their Latin alphabet name.  Xplore will soon allow a direct link to patents used as references similar to the hyperlinks to articles.  IEEE is also depending an HTML5-based mobile app for smart devices so that Xplore can be accessed from any device.

Due to the popularity and success of IEEE Xplore, IEEE is actively developing Xplore as the platform of choice for electrical engineering authors. The IEEE Periodicals Partnership Opportunities Committee has been formed to provide an expedited approval process for partnerships with non-IEEE entities.  IEEE is aggressively working to expand 3rd party content in Xplore including numerous journals that have had limited regional distribution; joining Xplore will enable these journals to reach a much broader audience.

In conclusion, I am pleased to report that several of the PES publications fared extremely well in their five year IEEE Publications review in November 2013.  The Power Systems, Power Delivery, Energy Conversion Transactions and the Power & Energy Magazine all received outstanding reviews.  The IEEE review team especially noted the quality review process and high impact factor of each of these publications.  I would like to personally recognize Mel Olken, Vijay Vittal, Antonio Conejo, Scott Sudhoff, Juri Jatskevich, Reza Iravani, Saifur Rahman, and Maria Proetto for all of their hard work over the past five years.