IEEE
Signal Processing
magazine
Description of Columns and Forums
The IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (SPM) columns and forums lineup consists of several categories that are listed below. Within each category, there are entries that differ in terms of the content characteristics, type of coverage and target audience.
With this lineup we are proposing a complementary approach to SPM columns and forums. Distinct categories of content provide a high-level discrimination of the content, and types of columns and forums, whereas components in each category complement each other in terms of the speed with which they track technological advances, balance between theoretical and experimental aspects of the content, and focus. The result is a diversified coverage and flexible functionality of the columns and forums mechanism.
The topics of the columns in each SPM issue are intended to complement and expand the topics in the special section of the same issue. In addition, these topics are often intended to be part of cycles that are presented in one column across several issues.
The submission guidelines, list of files for submission and column specs and other columns resources are available on the Columns Resources item on the right-hand menu. For more details and column examples please contact the associate editor of the column.
Category
Category: News
Column: In The Spotlight
This column is intended to be our own news agency and to provide an informative and focused commentary on a relevant piece of news related to signal processing or an important meeting related to our society. The introductory paragraph of the column specifies the topic for discussion and references the media outlet where the news was published or to the meeting that took place recently. The subsequent sections discuss, from a digital signal processing perspective, the applications, challenges and ongoing work related to the topic in discussion. In some cases, the article will detail the discussions that took place during the featured meeting.
Column: Reader's Choice
This column contains a list of articles published by the IEEE Signal Processing Society that ranked among the top 100 most downloaded IEEE Xplore articles over a selected period of time. The highest rank obtained by an article in this time frame is also provided in the list.
Category: Applications
Column: DSP Applications
This column presents established applications that are relevant to the SPM readers, with in-depth coverage. The content of the column spans audio, video, graphics, networking, and related interdisciplinary fields, and focuses on the DSP aspects that are specific to each application. Note that the content of this column is different from that of the Exploratory DSP column, the latter of which focuses on novel, exploratory applications.
Category: New DSP Topics
Column: Exploratory DSP
This column presents cutting-edge applications, has up-to-date coverage of the latest DSP developments and targets readers interested in emerging DSP work. The column also seeks topics that are interdisciplinary and relevant for the SPM readers. Note that the coverage of this column is different from that of the DSP Applications column, the latter of which focuses on established applications.
Column: Life Sciences
This column brings fresh insights on how biologically-inspired processing can help us advance through new methods and applications, and how signal processing theories and algorithms are being used to address challenges in this field. The articles published in this column are either standalone or part of cycles that cover several issues (examples include the genomics cycle and the brain imaging cycle).
Column: Social Sciences
This column shares knowledge on how our societies evolve, how we interact within these societies, and how signal processing theories and algorithms are being used to help us understand such a complex system. The articles published in this column are either standalone or part of cycles that cover several issues.
Category: Education
Column: DSP Education
This column presents interesting experiments and stories of success in applying digital signal processing for educational purposes, with attention to discussing the goals, methods, feedback received from the students, and lessons learned by both students and educators. The column also presents cycles of articles that bring a broader perspective on education and effective communication, and that target a wide range of readers, from beginners to experts.
Category: Advice
Column: DSP Tips and Tricks
This column presents in-depth articles that aim to solve practical problems. While it always contains a theoretical component, this column provides DSP advice by also including careful comparisons, discussions of experimental issues and conclusions that are invaluable for practitioners.
Column: Lecture Notes
This column tracks the main directions in DSP research using works at major conferences and workshops in our field, and presents in-depth materials that have not been covered sufficiently in existing textbooks. As such, the target audience of this column consists of all readers who enjoy presentations in a tutorial- or classroom-like teaching context. An article in this column is intended to be a crisp write-up (very similar to the notes one would take in a course or other classroom presentation). For consistency across different issues and topics, the Lecture Notes column makes use of a predefined format.
Category: Perspectives
Column: DSP History
This column brings to our readers articles that present major DSP discoveries, as well as the stories, interesting events and personalities involved. An article in this column focuses on presenting a major DSP discovery from the perspective of its author, and at the same time on presenting the interesting circumstances surrounding the discovery. Typically the DSP History articles also present the subsequent developments originating from the discovery in a compact form. However, they are not intended (and cannot) contain an exhaustive presentation of all valuable efforts that followed the initial discovery.
Column: Leadership Reflections
This column shares insights of leaders in our academic, research and industry DSP community. [Note: After a long and successful life, Leadership Reflections was discontinued in January 2007.]
Category: Resources
Columns: Standards in a Nutshell
This column presents in a compact and accessible form, relevant audio, video, networking, graphics, scene representation standards. For consistency across different issues and topics, the Standards in a Nutshell column uses of a predefined format.
Column: Book Review
This column, which tracks new DSP directions through the books published, provides a rich content that discusses several aspects related to the book reviewed including comparisons with competitors on the book market.
Column: Best of the Web
This column focuses on web resources that are useful for DSP evaluation, design, optimization, education, blog- and forum- discussion, and (why not) fun.
Column: New Products
This column tracks products that are likely to have a significant impact on commercial, research, or education levels.
[Note: New Products was discontinued in November 2007.]
Category: Forums
A DSP Forum is typically a discussion that involves several experts, and focuses on topics that are novel yet sufficiently mature, present some level of controversy and are best presented using orthogonal or converging arguments.