[SIGCIS-Members] Expedited publishing opportunities with IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

[Thomas Haigh]

Hello everyone,

 

The editorial board of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing was recently
informed by Lars Heide, its editor-in-chief, that the journal has an unusual
opportunity to provide rapid publication to its authors. Several projected
special issues have run into trouble, with the result that the queue of
accepted articles for regular issues has been drawn down faster than
expected. So an article well enough developed to receive an "accept with
minor revisions" on the initial round of reviewing might be published by the
end of this year if submitted in the near future. In the past Annals authors
often had to wait for a year or more after acceptance, so this provides a
real benefit for those eager to get work published for hiring, promotion, or
research assessment deadlines. Although Annals will not loosen its editorial
standards, one might plausibly expect that under the circumstances its
editors will be assiduous in sending reminders to reviewers and in
expediting their own work on submissions. 

 

The content of Annals has become increasingly diverse over the past decade,
including more work related to social history, gender, business history,
etc. However one of Annals' enduring traditions has been to publish well
researched technical histories, often written by computer specialists with
an amateur interest in history, as well as articles by Ph.D. historians.
Both go through peer review.

 

Annals is a very well established journal, now in its 36th year of
continuous publication. Being a publication of the IEEE Computer Society
ensures widespread availability of articles via the IEEE CS and IEEE digital
libraries. It is included in many indexes, including those produced by ISI
and the ACM. The print edition reaches a core audience of historians of
information technology and IEEE members with an avocational interest in
matters historical, and there is also a nicely presented electronic version
of each issue. The review process generally provides helpful and detailed
feedback from experts on the history of information technology. IIRC the
acceptance rate has been around 50% which is low enough to provide some
quality control but not so low as to intimidate potential authors. After
acceptance Annals still has real copyeditors and layout people who will make
sure your article reads and looks its best. 

 

Since 2001 I have had 10 peer reviewed articles accepted by Annals.
According to Google Scholar the first three of these to be published have
now accumulated 33, 31, and 38 citations respectively - respectable numbers
for history papers. Interested scholars have also made contact with me after
the publication of many of those articles. Annals has thus proven itself to
me as an effective way of reaching audiences interested in the history of
information technology.

 

You may also hear directly from an Annals board member familiar with your
work. If you do, please take their invitation seriously - he or she would
not be approaching you unless your work was suitable for the journal and
could have a real impact if published there. 

 

Author guidelines are at
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/peerreviewmagazines/annals. As that page
mentions, you can reach Lars Heide at heide.lpf at cbs.dk if you have questions
about how your work might be fit. The Annals website is at
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/annals. All back issues are
available online via the IEEE digital libraries, so looking though a recent
volume would give a good idea of the range of work Annals publishes.

 

Best wishes,


Tom

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