News Center / Press Releases 

Online First Model Reduces Submission Times

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., June 3, 2008—The IEEE Computer Society today announced a significant drop in submission-to-publication time for all of its journals due to adoption of the Online First Publication Model. 

While other societies post entire issues online ahead of print publication, the IEEE Computer Society (www.computer.org) posts individual papers online as they become available, which lessens the time between submission and publication. The date a paper is posted online is considered the published date. 

“Since we began following the Online First Publication Model, we have seen the submission-to-publication time for some of our journals drop by more than 11 months,” said Alicia Stickley, Senior Manager of Publishing Services. “For example, the sub-to-pub time for IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing fell from 14 months in 2006 to two months in 2007.”

Implemented in January 2007, the Online First Publication Model dictates that upon receipt of all publication materials, a PDF version of the author’s accepted paper (called a preprint) is posted to the CS Digital Library (http://www.computer.org/portal/site/csdl/) after it has been stamped with a DOI (digital object identifier). A DOI is a unique number that is assigned to a particular paper and can then be used to track that paper at any stage in its publication. As the paper moves through the stages of editing and pagination, the preprint is replaced with a PDF of the edited version (called a rapid post) and eventually with the finalized version that will appear in print.

The benefit to authors publishing with the IEEE Computer Society’s Transactions is great. Timely research, once held up by print queues, is now almost immediately available to colleagues for further exploration and usage. On the community level, this efficiency will help further strengthen communication between groups of like-minded researchers worldwide, while, on the individual level, these papers can now be more quickly utilized by authors for their vitae, grant proposals, and employment reviews. Subscribers and researchers alike can enjoy quick access to the most recent, cutting-edge content accepted for publication by IEEE Transactions.

Through the use of these developments, in addition to many other ongoing efforts, the IEEE Computer Society hopes to foster an environment of technological advancement and inspiration within the computer science and engineering field.

 

About the Computer Society

With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities.

The Computer Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses. Its Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) program for mid-career professionals and Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential for recent college graduates confirm the skill and knowledge of those working in the field. The CS Digital Library (CSDL) is an excellent research tool, containing more than 250,000 articles from 1,600 conference proceedings and 26 CS periodicals going back to 1988.