Editorial: A Message from the New Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

BECOMING Editor-in-Chief of such an excellent journal as the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics is a great honor as well as a big challenge for me. I am grateful to the search committee and to the IEEE Computer Society Publications Board for giving me the chance to infl uence and shape the future of one of the most outstanding scientifi c publications in the fi elds of computer graphics, visualization, virtual reality, and haptics. The excellent standing of TVCG is the result of the dedication and hard work by the previous EICs, Arie Kaufmann, Hans Hagen, and David S. Ebert, and it will be challenging to further improve on the high standards set by them. I am sure I can speak on behalf of the Computer Society publications staff, on behalf of the TVCG Editorial Board, and on behalf of the TVCG authors and its entire readership if I express my sincerest gratitude to the outgoing EIC, David S. Ebert. He has put tremendous effort into bringing TVCG into the excellent position it has today. Under his proactive leadership, many important metrics for the journal have improved signifi cantly. He has successfully broadened the scope and helped increase the number of submissions, while maintaining high quality, which led to a constant increase in published papers. His tight monitoring of the entire review process resulted in a major decrease in the time between submission and fi rst decision. Also, he took the lead in integrating the Proceedings of the IEEE Visualization Conference and Symposium on Information Visualization into the journal by establishing a review cycle that meets the high TVCG standards in a very tight time frame. I will surely rely on his support and advice in the future. While TVCG is in great shape, the conditions surrounding it are constantly changing. Our fi eld and our community are both growing, while research funding is decreasing. Researchers are evaluated by counting publications in top journals, while at the same time the growing number of conferences, symposia, and workshops leads to permanent deadline pressure. Electronic dissemination of scientifi c knowledge is becoming standard, while library budgets are shrinking. These new challenges for the journal must be addressed in the future. I rely on you, the readers and authors of TVCG, to share with me your creative ideas to further improve TVCG. The foundation upon which future developments are built is the increasing number of high quality submissions. I encourage you to submit your latest research results to TVCG and to take advantage of the Digital Library’s support for multimedia content. Please spread the word about TVCG’s short decision cycle, the early availability of issues in the Digital Library, and our continuing search for new and interesting topics for special issues.