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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 49, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2002

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Passing the Torch

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YEAR and a half ago, in my May 2001 editorial, I announced my decision to leave the Editor-in-Chief position of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT. We conducted a worldwide search process, interviewed many outstanding candidates, and selected my successor. George Farris, currently the Department Editor for the “People and Organizations” department, is our next Editor-in-Chief, taking on the editorial responsibilities starting with the February 2003 issue. I have had the pleasure of working closely with George since he joined our editorial team in 1992. He will carry the torch and assure that the TRANSACTIONS will continue to go to higher levels of recognition and visibility as the premier research journal in engineering and technology management. It has been 18 years since I was appointed Editor-in-Chief in 1985, and I have completed 68 issues of the journal starting with my first issue in February 1986. It has been a distinct pleasure to have the opportunity to work with thousands of people of the highest caliber throughout the world in these 18 years. They included the department editors, special issue editors, authors, reviewers, members of the IEEE EMS Board of Governors, the publication staff at the IEEE headquarters, and my Editorial Assistants. The journal did not have editorial departments when I became the Editor. I decided to form the department structure and asked the best people that I could identify to work with me as the department editors. I am proud that they all accepted my invitation. We immediately instituted a process to seek systematic feedback from the research community, and continued with that process throughout my tenure as the Editor-in-Chief. Our annual strategy meetings were always scheduled to coincide with major international conferences so we could discuss the emerging research issues and strategic directions of the field with our authors, reviewers, potential authors, and other researchers. The information we received in these meetings has been extremely valuable in developing our strategies to help the field grow and become increasingly more visible and recognizable. The continuous dialogue with the research community was instrumental in implementing our proactive strategies for leading the field. We saw our role not only as the facilitator for evaluation and publication of the submitted research papers, but also as the leader in the field for strengthening the research community, identifying and supporting the emerging research areas, finding and publishing the best research papers, helping the researchers to become leaders in their specific areas, and establishing the guidelines for the growth of the engineering and technology management discipline. To articulate this role, we used the following three guiding principles in developing our editorial philosophy:

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2002.807761

1) provide support for the recognition and visibility of the engineering and technology management discipline by promoting world class research; 2) provide guidance for research directions by proactive strategies for existing and emerging areas; 3) provide assistance to authors by editorial support for achievement of the highest possible quality. The underlying value structure in our work was built on our quest for excellence. We never compromised our values and principles. The department structure and editorial philosophy that was established in 1985 reflected the input we were receiving from the members of the Engineering Management Research Advisory Council (EMRAC), formed under the auspices of the IEEE. The 12 members of EMRAC included university professors, top researchers in major universities, high-level executives in industrial corporations, and policy makers in government agencies involved in engineering and technology management throughout the world. We communicated frequently and held several meetings with EMRAC members to define the critical dimensions and to identify the strategic issues of the Engineering Management discipline. These meetings helped to establish the direction of the TRANSACTIONS for many years to come. My colleagues in the first editorial team in 1985 were • Ralph Katz, “Engineers and Scientists” department; • Mike Tushman, “Technical Organizations” department; • R. Balachandra, “R&D and Engineering Projects” department; • Jim Evans, “Critical Resources” department; • Burt Dean, “Technological Systems” department; • Dick Dorf, “Book Reviews” department. I was at the University of Pittsburgh at that time, and my Editorial Assistant was Liz Delisi for the first six months, then Elizabeth Greene for about a year. It was our decision to evaluate the editorial departments and modify them to reflect the changes in the research directions, the emerging areas and emerging needs, as needed. I moved to Portland State University and established the editorial headquarters in my new location in 1987. Mike Tushman had started to get new responsibilities in his work and asked to be replaced as the editor of the “Technical Organizations” department. Philip Birnbaum replaced him. I was working with temporary, part-time Editorial Assistants at that time, but was fortunate that Ann White became my assistant in 1990. She has served as my closest associate and right-hand person in that position ever since. Other changes took place in the editorial departments in the years that followed. There was a major change in 1992: In our annual editorial strategy meeting, we decided to combine the “Engineers & Scientists” and “Technical Organizations” departments into the new “People and Organizations” department. This would highlight our emphasis on research in the organizational behavior and design areas in combination with behav-

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 49, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2002

ioral science, motivation, and leadership issues. We conducted a search for a leader to head this new department, and decided on George Farris. The same year, we also changed the title of the “Critical Resources” department to “Models and Methodologies,” to give a more accurate description of the emphasis of that department. In addition, we identified the management of information technology and the management of manufacturing systems as two critical application areas in engineering management in which research was growing. After an analysis of the research patterns and the needs of the research community, we established two new departments to address the needs. Eliezer Geisler joined us to lead the new “Information Technology” department and Don Gerwin became the department editor for the new “Manufacturing Systems” department. There was another important addition to the editorial departments in 1994. We saw the need for supporting strategy-level research in engineering management, formed the “Strategy and Policy” department, conducted an international search for the department editor, and selected Fred Betz for that position. About a year later Jim Evans, who had been in the editorial team for nearly ten years, asked to be replaced because of the increased administrative responsibilities at his work, and the extra time he needed for his new book. In 1996, after a six-month-long search, we identified Cheryl Gaimon as the new editor of the “Models and Methodologies” department. There were several changes in 1999. Elie Geisler and Don Gerwin, who had been department editors for seven years each, and Dick Dorf, who had led the Book Reviews department for 14 years, decided to pursue other interests. Ilze Zigurs replaced Geisler, Jeff Liker replaced Gerwin, and Alok Chakrabarti replaced Dorf as the new members of our editorial team. The year 2001 also brought several changes. Cheryl Gaimon and Ilze Zigurs had accepted administrative responsibilities at their universities, and asked to be replaced. Ann Marucheck became the editor of the “Models and Methodologies” department, and V. Sambamurthy joined us as the editor of the “Information Technology” department. There was a strong movement toward e-Commerce at that time. In order to encourage the research community to focus and to support the emergence of substantive research in that area, we decided to form a new department for management of “e-Commerce.” Tom Gulledge became the editor of the new department. Editorial responsibilities in a prestigious journal are very effort-intensive. Typically, on average, editors stay in those positions for no more than three to four years, but I have had the opportunity to work with most of my colleagues in the various departments much longer than that. The following is a summary of the tenure of the members of our editorial team since 1986: • R. Balachandra, 1986–2002 (17 years) • Frederick Betz, 1994–2002 (9 years) • Philip H. Birnbaum, 1987–1991 (5 years) • Alok K. Chakrabarti, 1999–2002 (4 years) • Burton V. Dean, 1986–2001 (16 years) • Richard C. Dorf, 1986–1998 (13 years) • James R. Evans, 1986–1995 (10 years) • George F. Farris, 1992–2002 (11 years) • Cheryl Gaimon, 1996–2000 (5 years) • Eliezer Geisler, 1992–1998 (7 years)

• • • • • • • •

Donald Gerwin, 1992–1998 (7 years) Thomas R. Gulledge, 2001–2002 (2 years) Ralph Katz, 1986–1991 (6 years) Jeffrey K. Liker, 1999–2002 (4 years) Ann Marucheck, 2001–2002 (2 years) V. Sambamurthy, 2001–2002 (2 years) Michael L. Tushman, 1986–1987 (1 year) Ilze Zigurs, 1999–2000 (2 years)

I am grateful to them. One of the strategies we used for reaching out to the research community, identifying the emerging research areas in engineering management, and supporting researchers in those areas was to have special issues and special clusters on critical topics. We defined the scope of each special issue after evaluating several proposals and selecting those that would have a strong impact on engineering management research. Once we made the decision, we provided full editorial and intellectual support to the guest editors to assure the highest level of quality. The special issues and special clusters we developed since 1986 are listed below. • Aug. 1989: “Social and Organizational Dimensions of Computer-Aided Design—Volume 1”—Guest editors: Ann Majchrzak and Harold Salzman • Nov. 1989: “Social and Organizational Dimensions of Computer-Aided Design—Volume 2”—Guest editors: Ann Majchrzak and Harold Salzman • Nov. 1991: “Management of Information Technologies”— Guest editor: Eliezer Geisler • Aug. 1992: “Managing Technical Professionals”—Guest editors: Ralph Katz and Denis M. S. Lee • May 1994: “Machine Learning Approaches to Scheduling” (Special Cluster)—Guest editor: S. Selçuk Erengüç • Aug. 1995: “Product Development” (Special Cluster)— Guest editors: Thomas J. Allen, Christer Karlsson, and Fleming Norrgren • Feb. 1996 “International R&D”—Guest editor: R. Balachandra • May 1996: “Concurrent Engineering”—Guest editors: Donald Gerwin and Gerald Susman • Nov. 1997: “Information Technologies and Technology Commercialization”—Guest editors: Eliezer Geisler and Suleiman K. Kassicieh • May 1998: “Emergency Management and Engineering”— Guest editors: Suleyman Tufekci and William A. Wallace • Aug. 1998: “Technology Management & The Asia Pacific—Volume 1”—Guest editors: Jeffrey K. Liker and David V. Gibson • Nov. 1998: “Technology Management & The Asia Pacific—Volume 2”—Guest editors: Jeffrey K. Liker and David V. Gibson • Aug. 1999: “Technology Management in the Health Care Sector”—Guest editor: Arnold Reisman • Aug. 2001: “Technology Management in the Service Industries”—Guest editors: Daniel Berg, James Tien, and William A. Wallace • Aug. 2002: “Supply Chain Management”—Guest editor: Jeffrey K. Liker

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 49, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2002

• Nov. 2002: “Disruptive Technologies and Discontinuous Innovation” (Special cluster)—Guest editors: Sul Kassicieh, Steven Walsh, and Bruce Kirchoff • Feb. 2003: “Cultural Issues and Information Technology Management”—Guest editors: Maris Martinsons and Robert Davison • In progress: “The Internet, E-Commerce and Innovation”—Guest editors: Mel Horwitch and Jonathan D. Linton The enthusiasm that I have seen in my assistant, Ann, our editorial team, special issue editors, authors, and reviewers has been the prime mover for my own motivation to put my effort into guiding and bringing all this tremendous intellectual energy toward the success of the journal. As a result, I am very proud of the worldwide recognition of the leadership role that our journal is providing. A manifestation of this recognition was the result of a study conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Michigan, headed by Jeff Liker, in 1995 [1]. They asked 125 members of the Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) division of the Academy of Management to rank 29 journals in the field. Forty of the respondents identified TIM as their primary division; 13 respondents, who were in the information systems area but interested in innovation and technology management, listed Organizational Communication and Information Systems (OCIS) as their primary division in the Academy; the remaining 72 respondents listed other divisions as their primary division even though they also belonged to the TIM division. The journals were classified in four categories: 1) General Management Journals: a) Academy of Management Journal b) Academy of Management Review c) Administrative Science Quarterly d) Decision Sciences e) Journal of International Business Studies f) Management Science g) Organizational Science h) Strategic Management Journal 2) Management Review Journals: a) Academy of Management Executive b) California Management Review c) Columbia Journal of World Business d) Organizational Dynamics e) Sloan Management Review 3) TIM Specialty Journals ON ENGINEERING a) IEEE TRANSACTIONS MANAGEMENT b) Journal of Engineering & Technology Management c) Journal of High Technology Management Research d) Journal of Product Innovation Management e) Research Technology Management f) Research Policy g) Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 4) Information Systems Journals Communications of ACM Information Systems Research MIS Quarterly

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Each journal was evaluated along six dimensions. 1) READ: How often do you read articles in the journal—from “0” (never heard of the journal) to “5” (read all issues). 2) IMPACT: Impact of the journal’s articles on TIM work—from “1” (none) to “5” (a great deal). 3) CITE: How often have you cited the articles published in the journal for TIM papers written in the last 3 years—from “1” (never) to “5” (often). 4) RATE: How do you rate the journal as an outlet for TIM papers—from “1” (poor) to “5” (excellent). 5) SUBMIT: Number of TIM-related papers you have submitted to the journal in the last 3 years. 6) ACCEPTED: Number of your papers accepted by the journal. The ranking of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT by the researchers is summarized according to their primary research interests as defined by the primary division of the Academy of Management to which they belong. 1) Primary Research Area: Technology and Innovation ) Management ( READ: first among TIM specialty journals; IMPACT: first among all journals; CITE: first among all journals; RATE: first among all journals; SUBMIT: first among all journals; ACCEPT: first among all journals. ) 2) Primary Research Area: Information Systems ( READ: first among TIM specialty journals; IMPACT: first among TIM specialty journals; CITE: first among TIM specialty journals; RATE: first among TIM specialty journals; SUBMIT: first among TIM specialty journals; ACCEPT: first among TIM specialty journals. ) 3) Primary Research Area: Others ( READ: first among TIM specialty journals; IMPACT: first among TIM specialty journals; CITE: first among TIM specialty journals; RATE: first among all journals; SUBMIT: first among TIM specialty journals; ACCEPT: second among all journals. A follow-up study conducted by a research team headed by Arnold Reisman in 1999 focused on the citation of papers published in 1204 journals in the 1990–1994 time frame. They used three different methods to measure the quantity and effectiveness of citations. [2]. The conclusion of the study was: “IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, Research Policy, and Journal of Product Innovation Management, can be viewed as the premium TIM specialty journals due to their high citation ranking across the three methods. These journals stand testimony to the growth of TIM as a scientific discipline” [2]. It has been a wonderful journey for the last 18 years. I express my thanks and gratitude to the thousands of people who made these 18 years such an exciting and rewarding time. I listed the colleagues with whom I had the opportunity to work directly

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and closely since 1985, but, of course, it is not possible to acknowledge everybody by name. In addition to the department editors, special issue editors and my editorial assistants, I am grateful to the IEEE EMS Board of Governors for giving me the opportunity to serve the profession for 18 years. I am grateful to the IEEE headquarters staff for providing full support, at a highly professional level, for the production of every issue of the journal. I am grateful to our authors and reviewers for enabling us to set a very high standard of excellence for the journal and to maintain it. I am grateful to our readers for enthusiastically supporting the journal and giving us feedback on every paper we published. Finally, I am grateful to my family for the understanding and tolerance they showed me when I had to spend my time on the TRANSACTIONS rather than with them. To our readers: Your enthusiasm and support are the biggest rewards for us. You have been very generous in rewarding us during my tenure as the Editor-in-Chief. With that support, we have been able to bring the TRANSACTIONS to a very high level

of recognition and respect in the field. My successor, George Farris, is an outstanding colleague who will continue to bring the journal to higher and higher levels. As I bid farewell to you, I thank you for the support you have given to us, and ask you to continue with your support of our next Editor-in-Chief for the years to come. DUNDAR F. KOCAOGLU, Editor-in-Chief Portland State University Portland, OR 97207–0751 USA

REFERENCES [1] J. Liker et al., “Results of a survey on management journals for TIM research,” TIM Newslett., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 5–8, 1995. [2] C. H. Cheng, A. Kumar, J. G. Motwani, A. Reisman, and M. S. Madan, “A citation analysis of the technology innovation management journals,” IEEE Trans. Eng. Manage., vol. 48, pp. 4–13, Feb. 1999.