1. (On Behalf of Steering Committee)
IEEE Journal on Special Topics in Information Theory (JSTIT) Update and Status
Jeff Andrews
(On Behalf of Steering Committee)
ISIT BOG Meeting
July 2018

2. Status Summary Last BOG Meeting at ITA, 2 motions passed:
Steering Committee approved
Submission of Phase 1 Proposal approved
Phase 1 Proposal Submitted May 4
Addresses comments from IEEE on preliminary version
Includes results of Readership Survey
Phase 1 Presentation to IEEE TAB and Periodicals Committee this Thursday, June 21
Future timeline (inc. Phase 2 Proposal) will be determined shortly

3. Steering Committee Key Responsibilities:
Chair: Jeffrey Andrews, UT Austin (EIC of Trans. Wireless Comm., , BOG Member )
Rob Calderbank, Duke (EIC of Trans IT , Hamming Medal, Shannon Award, NAE)
Muriel Medard, MIT (EIC of JSAC , ITSoc President 2012, Founding SC of IEEE TNSE )
Vince Poor, Princeton (EIC of Trans. IT , ITSoc President 1990, Bell Medal, NAE, NAS)
Rudi Urbanke, EPFL (Hamming Medal, Kobayashi Award, ITSoc President 2017)
Key Responsibilities:
Directing the journal to technical and financial success
Selecting EIC (both initial and future)
Helping select initial Senior Editors
Seeding early special issues to ensure ultra-high quality
Drafting JSTIT Bylaws (for BOG approval)

4. Phase 1 Proposal Summary
Phase 1 Proposal is on agenda webpage (16 pages)
A key goal is to convince IEEE that JSTIT can be successful in a way that SIs added to the existing Transactions cannot be
Strong evidence from ComSoc (JSAC) and SPSoc (JSTSP) that this is the case
A key initial and ongoing challenge will be to attract top theoretical papers in areas not firmly within IT
ComSoc and SPSoc leadership have been helpful and pledged to support the proposal

5. Visual Landscape of JSTIT Scope (plus core IT hot topics)

6. IEEE J. on Sel. Topics in Signal Processing (JSTSP) Financials vs
IEEE J. on Sel. Topics in Signal Processing (JSTSP) Financials vs. Trans SP
Year
Expenses
Revenues
Net ($K)
Issues
Pages
TSP Net
TSP pages
2007
82.4
48.8
-33.5 4
757
1031
5952
2008
124
64.1
-59.8 6
1047
856.8
6180
2009
141.8
63.7
-78.1
1158
976.8
5032
2010
130.6
93.6
-37.1
1141
783.5
6496
2011
168.2
105.2
-63 8
1646
915.7
6384
2012
119
131.7
12.8
1020
1024.2
6828
2013
118.1
190.2 72
1185
1192
6513
2014 99
198
1216
916.7
6687
2015
132
215 83
1700
940.7
6785
2016
101
114
1596
873.2
6739
2017*
122
223 7a
1234a
898.8
6634
2018*
104
233
129
N/A
819.4*
*projected a appeared so far

7. Proposed Next Steps/Timeline
Await IEEE Decision on Phase I Proposal
Assuming Success:
Phase II Proposal, late 2018 [BOG Vote]
Recruit Senior Editors (about 50% of total), late 2018
Begin lining up first special issues, through end of 2018
Identify first EIC, late 2018 or early 2019 [BOG Vote]
Draft Policies and Procedures [BOG Vote]
Recruit more Senior Editors (done mostly by EIC)
Launch journal, mid 2019