Message from the Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

The Editor-in-Chief introduces the December 2012 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). It contains 96 papers, including all papers presented at the IEEE Scientific Visualization Conference (Vis) and the IEEE Information Visualization Conference (InfoVis), and the 10 best papers presented at the IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technolgy (VAST), in Seattle, Washington, USA, from 14-19 October 2012. These papers that were recommended for acceptance by the program committee of these three conferences, after having undergone a rigorous two-round review process, are published in this issue. This special issue is the culmination of the ongoing partnership between TVCG and IEEE VisWeek. The goal of this cooperation between the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee (VGTC) is to introduce many high-quality research results from the world's top visualization conferences to TVCG’s readership, while improving the overall quality and visibility of conference publications through a rigorous journal-style review. This special issue continues to demonstrate that this objective has been achieved. With a similar motivation, the authors of 23 TVCG regular papers were invited to give an oral presentation of their recent work at IEEE VisWeek 2012. This arrangement provides a unique opportunity for the VisWeek audience to keep abreast of high-quality visualization research featured in TVCG, while encouraging more TVCG authors to attend VisWeek. Ultimately, this closely coupled relationship between TVCG and VisWeek should lead to a more timely exchange of new ideas, foster rapid dissemination of recent works via an integrated forum for both publications and presentations, and further expand and grow our community.