Editorial: The new face of the Journal

The October issue of volume 39 is a watershed issue of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, as it will be the last issue that will be provided as a printed magazine. Starting with volume 40 in January 2015, the JOURNAL will be published and distributed to members electronically. I would like to give you some background on the change, and some indications of what the new format will be. The initiative to eliminate the printed magazine of the JOURNAL has been under discussion at the Oceanic Engineering Society for many years. When I came on board as Editor-in-Chief, it was not my plan to make such a change. But in talking to our readers, authors, and associate editors at recent conferences and meetings, my thinking has changed dramatically. It is evident that most of the younger folks who use our JOURNAL (and many older ones like me) download digital copies of papers from IEEE Xplore when they want to use and read articles that have been published. It became clear to me that for most of the users, the printed version was redundant. The initiative to move away from the printed magazine was discussed again at the ADCOM meeting of the Oceanic Engineering Society in Taipei in April, and a motion was passed to move to a digital journal. Since then, I have been working with IEEE Publications to set this up. So, what does it mean for the readers, authors, and Associate Editors? The JOURNAL will still publish quarterly issues in each volume. Instead of getting a printed copy, members will get an e-mail message that lists the papers that have been published in the issue, with a link directly to each paper on IEEE Xplore. Many other IEEE publications and many other journals of other societies do this already, so we are not out on a limb. In talking to the folks at IEEE Publications, most of the other IEEE publications have made, or like us, are in the process of making the change. The benefit for readers is that they have access directly to the digital version of the paper- with features such as color figures embedded in the file. We will not have to ask authors to provide black and white versions of figures for the printed article, or continue to publish inferior versions of color figures translated to various shades of gray. For the Society, there is a saving in cost, although the financial benefit was not the primary reason to make the change.