Editorial

The OES Conferences have produced collections of state-ofthe- technology papers that could transition to full-fledged peerreviewed articles or technical communications in the JOURNAL. To facilitate this process, in 2010, I have launched an initiative to encourage authors of meritorious papers presented at OES Conferences to submit their work for peer review and publication in the JOURNAL. The JOURNAL is experiencing an increasing number of ethics problems such as simultaneous submission of papers to multiple Journals, republication of papers, and plagiarism. These offenses are serious. The policy is quite clear. One can avoid the appearance of impropriety simply by informing the Editor of previous publication or rejection of the paper. The Editor can thus decide whether the paper should be considered for peer review and any misunderstanding can be avoided. Also, it is the responsibility of the authors to determine whether proprietary or classified restrictions apply, and to obtain prior consent. The strength of our JOURNAL rests on the quality of the papers submitted, the quality of the peer review, and the diligent efforts of our Associate Editors.