New Online Submission Process for Transactions Papers

As more archival literature "goes electronic", it gets easier to do research, and to publish your own new developments. Thus, our technical community develops at a faster rate than it did a decade or two ago. I'd like to profile several new "tools" that are at your disposal, whether you are a CPMT member or not.

Accessing Current/Past CPMT Transactions Papers
Many of you have discovered that all of our Transactions papers back through 1988 can be quickly accessed on the IEEE website (ieeexplore.ieee.org). If you aren't a member, you still have the ability to scan the issues and titles; you can then purchase individual copies of the papers through the ASK*IEEE service.
But since you are a subscriber, you can do scans or searches and then print the PDF file for any paper that interests you. In fact, you can print out papers from the "next issue" before it gets to your mailbox, since the papers are posted on the IEEE Xplore website even before the "paper" version goes into the mail.
And if you want even more accessability at your desk, you can purchase a set of 9 CD-ROMs that cover all of our Society papers from 1954 to 1999, with full-text search - ideal for uncovering the past technology that can improve your current and future products! Want a set of these CDs? It's only US$25 for members (and only $950 for non-members and libraries). See our website for ordering information.

Submitting Your Work for the CPMT Transactions
There are few things more gratifying than having a piece of your work published. Having a manuscript peer-reviewed adds credibility and authority to your professional opinions. In addition, if you have a work published in an IEEE journal, your piece could qualify to receive our award recognizing the "Best Transactions Paper of the Year" along with a US$10,000 prize. Placing a manuscript in an archival publication allows you to showcase your expertise and talents to your peers as well as your family and friends. With IEEE's Manuscript Central on-line system, reaping the benefits of publication has gotten much easier.
CPMT members (and non-members) can now submit their works electronically for publication and review, using instructions and links on our Society website (www.cpmt.org/trans/). Authors can upload and then monitor the status of their papers online. Have you prepared a paper (or given one at a recent conference) covering new developments and/or directions in design, packaging, or production technology, or clear advances in existing technology? Then discover how easy it is to submit your paper for peer review.
The first step is logging on to Manuscript Central and creating a user name and password for your "Author Center" (if you don't already have one). There is a detailed PowerPoint presentation available on the website that will help guide you through the necessary steps - or just give it a try. If you are having problems, Marsha Tickman is available to guide you (m.tickman@ieee.org).
Now you're ready to submit information about your paper, which will include the title and abstract of your manuscript, and all authors and affiliations. Then we need a double-spaced PDF (or Postscript) version of your paper. If you don't have a PDF distiller, don't worry - there's one on our Manuscript Central website (actually we have a link, with UserName and Password provided, that gets you into Adobe Corp's online distilling website; you distill, check, then save your PDF file on your own computer).
The next step is to upload your manuscript. From Manuscript Central, use the browse button to locate the PDF file on your computer and then click UPLOAD to move your manuscript to the Web site. Once your piece is uploaded, you can check the manuscript for any obvious errors. If you find errors, simply go to your original document, make the appropriate changes, return to the draft center and replace the earlier version with a corrected one.
After submitting your piece you then wait for an email response from the Editor and one of our Associate Editors. During the following weeks you can check the status of your paper to see if the review process has begun and exchange email with the Associate Editor.

A Faster Peer-Review Process
One of our goals in switching to an on-line submission and review system is to speed up the review process for everyone, while eliminating most of the paperwork (and not losing any of it!) So, what if you're an Editor, or one of our Associate Editors or Guest Editors? With the new system, papers can be routed from Editor to AE on the same day, and the AE can invite Reviewers in a day or two. There are no "paper" manuscripts to send by express mail -- it's all done with email. Ganesh Subbarayan at the University of Colorado, one of our Associate Editors, puts it this way: "The new online system is really convenient and efficient. As someone who is very organized with electronic media and not as organized with paper media, I found the online process very efficient and painless. I was able to assign three reviewers for the paper in 10 minutes!" Bob Boudreau of Corning, one of our Associate Editors for the Transactions on Advanced Packaging, explains some of the benefits: "I am using the new system for the first time to review a paper. Overall, the system has been very nice and it greatly speeded up the process. In fact, the review is now done. I think the entire review cycle was reduced to only about a week. This is unreal."
And if you are a Reviewer? An AE or Guest Editor will create your account and email you your UserName and Password. When he/she gets a paper requiring your expertise, you'll get an email "invitation" that includes the paper's title and abstract, so you can see if this is within your areas of expertise. After you respond, the AE will "post" the paper to your Center, and an email will alert you that the PDF file is now available to read and analyze. There is an online "evaluation form" for you to fill out. This means that there is no paperwork to mail back to the AE! The whole process takes days, not weeks and months.

So, we invite you to be an avid user of the knowledge that we publish, on behalf of our profession; and we encourage you to use our new on-line system for submitting your own new developments!

Paul Wesling, CPMT Society VP-Publications
Compaq Computer Corp/NonStop Division