[president’s MESSAGE]
José M.F. Moura 2008–2009 SPS President
[email protected]
A New Point of View
W
e’re all acquainted with the saying “Things are not always what they seem.” It’s human to invest our belief in what is apparent; largely, we believe what we can “see.” Promises don’t have much of a role in our lives once our permanent teeth come in and the Tooth Fairy has taken her cache of quarters (at least, it was quarters in my day) on the road to the next home in the neighborhood with young children. The Tooth Fairy is a magical concept to a child. You give up something that has reached its useful end to you—a baby tooth—and you get something significantly more useful—cash. There are other kinds of “magic.” The “now you see it; now you don’t” variety of magic fascinates. Even when we know the role of distraction and fast hands, we are all entranced by the performance. “Where is all this going?” you ask. Well, the Society is about to perpetrate an act of magic and the members are the beneficiaries. It’s important to note there’s no slight of hand involved, but we think you will applaud the performance. Beginning with the January 2010 issues, the IEEE Signal Processing Society will provide free access (to all of its dues-paying members) to all seven of its wholly sponsored publications. These include the following: ■ IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing ■ IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2009.932159
IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing ■ IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security ■ IEEE Signal Processing Letters ■ IEEE Signal Processing Magazine ■ IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. The trick, if there is one, is that you will receive these for free only in electronic format by way of IEEE Xplore. Just think of it! No bills to pay. The full text of all published papers are readily available to you. In fact, it’s even better than that! Since our Society preposts all ■
THE TRICK IS THAT YOU WILL RECEIVE THESE FOR FREE ONLY IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT BY WAY OF IEEE XPLORE. accepted papers, the citable material is available to you months sooner than paper publication will allow. Now, the thing about good magic is that when something disappears, the magician puts something in its place. The Tooth Fairy traded you a quarter for that baby tooth. Next, the magician may replace a disappearing elephant with a priceless gem. In the case of SPS publications, while your print publications will disappear, the Content Gazette will make its appearance. Each month, you will receive a printed newspaper with the actual tables of contents of all of the publications you are receiving for free. This way, at your leisure—perhaps while traveling or over your lunch break—you can scan the contents
IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE [6] MAY 2009
pages to identify papers or articles of particular interest to you, Then, when you sign on to IEEE Xplore, you can download those papers most meaningful or most intriguing to you. The Content Gazette will contain interesting items such as calls for papers for upcoming Society-sponsored workshops and conferences; order instructions for print copies of particular articles; a membership form (in case a friend or colleagues wants to experience the Society’s magic for him/ herself); instructions for submitting your own work to the Society’s publications, etc. Now, although all of the paper journals are disappearing, one jewel will continue to appear. The awardwinning IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, always a benefit of your membership, will continue to arrive in your mailbox in print. The magazine’s tutorial format and full-color, high-production values are especially suited to a print publication. You can get the magazine electronically, of course, because it is also on IEEE Xplore. The Society’s leaders and staff are excited about providing this significant, valuable benefit to Society members. While it involves a new point of view, this is magic of the most exciting variety for scientists and engineers. Oh, by the way, the Society’s magician is just beyond the green curtain, and the Tooth Fairy has gone on vacation. [SP]
