The IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) is starting a new publication program called the "IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing". That program will be "dedicated to publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed articles on the latest developments, topics, and trends in signal processing."

To have an article published the author must pay the SPS an "Article Processing Charge" of $995 U.S. dollars. Would any of you be willing to pay $995 to have your article published in the new journal?

While not as much as some open journal charges (PNAS charges $1700) this is still quite a high charge.

I review for 2 journals, and get paid nothing for my efforts (other than access to the journal contents). 

IEEE members pay IEEE membership plus society memberships plus IEEExplore monthly charges. 

I understand that organizations have to cover costs, but this model is making it look more and more like vanity publishing at a for-profit publisher. A while back there was backlash in the academic world when one otherwise reputable publisher was deemed to be overly focusing on its commercial aspects.

Y(J)S

Hi Y(J)S. What is "PNAS"?

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hi Y(J)S. Ah ha. Thanks.

I don't see any reason to do that, so, short answer, no.   ;)

For that price, they should at least throw in a diploma from IEEE School of Truck Driving or IEEE Beauty College.

Neil

:))

I am always a bit annoyed by "pay to publish" journals. Especially if that journal then charges extortionately for people to get copies of the papers. Given that they call themselves and "Open Journal" does that mean they will then host the papers for people to read for free on their web site?

A much better business model (in my opinion of course :-)) is to have a paid membership in the 'society', publish papers from society members that pass review for 'free', and charge for copies for the first two years after publication and then switch them over to being available freely. And offer to wave membership fees in the society for a year if you get one or more papers published that year.

@Y(J)S @Rick Lyons @Slatibartfast @neirober @ChuckMcM

What are, in your opinion, the changes that should be made to DSPRelated for authors who publish exclusively in journals to consider using our platform for publishing their work (for free)?  Is the 'peer-reviewed' aspect the only thing missing?  Should we call a section 'journal' and send a copy (monthly) of the journal by email?

Yes, with few exceptions only peer-reviewed journals count in academia (the major exception being patents).

What you are specifically missing is 1) an ISBN number and 2) recognition by the academic community (or at very least by Google Scholar, Academia, ResearchGate, etc.) so that the publication to be counted and to add to their h-index.

The first is easy to rectify. The second issue is a hard one - the IETF has been trying for some time to get the RFC series (which is strongly peer-reviewed) recognized, with no success. A non-peer-reviewed series has no chance.

Y(J)S

Thanks Y(J)S for your answer.  So recognition by the academic community is the challenge.  But what a difference it would make, in terms of attracting relevant content, if publishing on DSPRelated could be counted and added to the h-index.  

Of course it depends what you want to achieve.

These open access journals are careful with their processes, and are frequently produced by the same organizations that produce the traditional journals. They are thus recognized by the scoring authorities.

In general citation counts and h-indexes are critical for academics, as their career advancement depends on them. A publication that is not recognized is a publication that does not exist. Even veterans who no longer require the statistics for their next rank, want the bragging rights of the highest h-index in their department or in their field.

Y(J)S

Hi Stephane,

I suppose most readers of DSPrelated come here to get informed and instructed about somewhat general DSP theory and tips.  They want to get some education or they want to apply what they learn here to a real problem they need to solve.

In this spirit, it would be good to continue to solicit tutorials.  It might make sense to have a separate section of educational posts that are of high quality.  The trick, of course, is to judge that.  Maybe some of the published authors who contribute now would be willing to review/suggest posts.

IMO, we shouldn't change the emphasis of DSPrelated to be more academic -- I don't think that is where most of your readers are.

regards,

Neil

Hi Neil, thanks for your thoughtful reply.

I agree with you that DSPRelated should not aim at becoming more academic.  I wouldn't mind more 'middle of the road' content though, similar to what can be read in IEEE Spectrum and other publication aimed at practicing engineers.  

Stephane

Hi Stephane.

I've always thought that dsprelated.com was "aimed at practicing engineers".

Indeed Rick, DSPRelated's core audience is made of practicing engineers.  Which is why I am saying that I wouldn't mind more content aimed at practicing engineers from authors who are currently and exclusively publishing their work in 'academic' magazines and journals.

@stephaneb

In my opinion the only to metrics for a "journal" are credibility and the ability to track down citations to papers in that journal.

Sadly credibility has a time component that can't easily be overcome but the good news is that it takes care of itself if you get the second part right. To be credible however you also need peer review (I prefer a mix of anonymous/non-anonymous which lets the editorial board both see how reviews went when the author gets to "know" the reviewer and they don't. This avoids people who would criticize the work but won't criticize "famous" people, and people who would overlook flaws in the work because they were "fans" of the author.) 

The ability to cite and find articles is what really gives a journal impact. If it is low friction on a researcher's part to both search through and cite relevant papers in a journal it makes them more likely to reference those papers. Getting access/availability to research libraries is important there. So working with the various library systems and plugging into the research section helps a lot. Also places like researchgate.net can be a way of enhancing visibility of both authors and research to make it more likely it will be cited when relevant.

Once you're being cited you just continue to add quality papers and grow your reputation. Add an RSS feed and a publication schedule (deadlines are the only way I ever seem to finish my papers :-)) with a regular "mail blast" to the various publications that summarize that month/quarter/half-year/year's papers that can go out to the editors of the various trade magazines for outreach.