Annual Report
The Asian Journal of Control, an ACA (Asian Control Association) affiliated journal, is the first international journal originating from the Asian Pacific region and being recognized by the major body of control researchers in this region. The Asian Journal of Control publishes bimonthly high-quality papers on original theoretical and experimental research and development in the areas of control, involving all facets of control theory and its application.
Functionally, this journal not only provides a forum where control researchers and practitioners can exchange their knowledge and experiences in the control areas, but also serves as an educational means for students and any others whoever likes to learn some topics in the same technical area. The journal aims to be a key interface between control communities within the Asian Pacific region and throughout the world.
Scope of the journal: The scope of the journal is extensive. Topics include: the theory and design of control systems and components, encompassing robust and distributed control using geometric, optimal, stochastic and nonlinear methods, game theory and state estimation; adaptive control, including robotics, neural networks, learning, parameter estimation and system fault detection; additional topics including artificial intelligence, fuzzy and expert systems, hierarchical and man-machine systems, all parts of systems engineering which consider the reliability of components and systems; data processing; mechatronics; and computers for computer-aided design, manufacturing, and control of various industrial processes, space vehicles and aircraft, ships, traffic, biomedical systems, national economies, power systems, agriculture and natural resources.
Submitted articles may be Review Papers (extensive reviews of established or emerging research topics or application areas), Regular Papers (detailed discussion involving new research, applications or development), or Brief Papers (brief presentations of new technical concepts and developments). The journal also publishes some Special Issues on subjects of increasing importance.
If you want to subscribe AJC and get more information, please go to AJC homepage at http://www.ajc.org.tw/index.asp.
Great progress had been seen in The Asian Journal of Control on its quality, the international visibility, and various aspects in the past year. Setting our goal on becoming the leading publication in the field of control theory and applications, we had undergone a series of changes and managed to yield remarkable results as presented below:
In 2015, with the help from our publisher Wiley, Associate Editors, and reviewers, we were able to alleviate the backlog problem with doubled page budget and lowered acceptance rate. In many cases, accepted papers were accessible to the public by the form of online publication two months after receipt of acceptance notice. For more recently accepted papers with latest research discoveries, visit our Early View Center at Wiley Online Library (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291934-6093/earlyview).
In the past year, great improvement had also been seen in review turnaround time. We had successfully shortened the 1st review time from 3.14 months (2014) to 2.5 months, and we hope by maintaining this downward trajectory in the peer review time, we will be able to attract more submissions.
The Asian Journal of Control had also gained unprecedented visibility and recognition around the globe. In particular, tremendous growths in readership and article downloads were seen in the US and European regions. Downloads via Wiley Online Library had increased by 24% in 2015. In response to the expanding readership, we are planning to work with our publisher Wiley to introduce new means of maximizing and measuring the research impacts of AJC papers, including license agreement with internet giant to gain more exposure in search engines.
We are also pleased to announce our ten reviewers nominated by Associate Editors as the Outstanding Reviewers of 2015. They took parts in maintaining the high quality of AJC by providing solid review comments and constructive criticism for AJC papers. See more details about winners of 2015 Outstanding Reviewers at (http://www.ajc.org.tw/pages/outstandingmain.htm).
In addition to the above-mentioned achievements and improvements, more changes and improvement strategies will be made to keep Asian Journal of Control among the top-ranking engineering journals.
The Asian Journal of Control has been making its way in increasing the quality and expanding the international visibility from various aspects. With the help and support of authors, reviewers, and our editorial board, we are excited and grateful to announce that the 2014 Impact Factor of Asian Journal of Control has increased to 1.556, ranking 25 among total 58 journals in the category of Automation & Control Systems. The progress of Asian Journal of Control is presented as follows.
In the past year, the doubled page budget and lowered acceptance rate have gradually alleviated the backlog problem. Meanwhile, to reduce the backlog, the newest accepted papers continue to be updated ahead at our EarlyView Center. Currently, more than 164 papers are exhibited online with the help of our publisher Wiley (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1934-6093/earlyview).
In order to attract more authors and readers, we have two ongoing special issues, including "Recent Developments on Modeling and Control of Hybrid Electric Vehicles" and "Recent Emerging Technologies in Atomic Force Microscopy." The former is undergoing the final review process and are scheduled for publication in January, 2016, while the latter one is still calling for papers. Our future aim indeed, is to keep encouraging our editorial board members and respectable scholars to propose more popular and interesting special issues.
For the annual Outstanding Reviewer, fourteen reviewers were nominated by our Associate Editors as the Outstanding Reviewers of 2014 in appreciation of their continuous contribution to the success, providing solid review comments for AJC (http://www.ajc.org.tw/pages/outstandingmain.htm).
To expand the visibility, we and Wiley have been setting booths and giving out flyers and USB flash drive with free access/downloads during major conferences. Open access service has also been opened up for authors who would like to spread out crucial information worldwide without limitation.
The Asian Journal of Control has been making great progress in expanding its international visibility and increasing the quality from various aspects. In particular, we're pleased to announce that the Impact Factor of Asian Journal of Control has increased from 1.034 (2011) to 1.411 (2012), ranking 23rd among total 58 journals in the category Automation & Control Systems. The progress of Asian Journal of Control is presented in the following report.
With the help with the publisher John Wiley & Sons, backlog problem is gradually alleviated due to the doubled page budget. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the backlog, we continue to update the newest accepted papers online at our EarlyView Center. Currently, more than 120 papers are exhibited online (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1934-6093/earlyview).
For the annual Outstanding Reviewer, thirteen reviewers are nominated by our Associate Editors as the Outstanding Reviewers of 2012 in appreciation of their continuous contribution to the success, providing solid review comments for AJC (http://www.ajc.org.tw/pages/outstandingmain.htm).
In 2012, we have four ongoing special issues, including "Advances in Fractional Order Control and Estimation," "Advances in Active Control of Sound and Vibration," "Vision-Based Control Systems," and "Tensor Product (TP) Model Transformation-based Control System Design." The former two are undergoing the final review process and are scheduled for publication in May, 2013 and November, 2013, respectively. The latter two are still undergoing the first round of review. What is worth mentioning, we received no less than 20 papers and even more than 30 papers for each special issue, showing the popularity of these themes. In the future, we will keep encouraging our editorial board members and respectable scholars to propose more popular and interesting special issues.
We are joyful to report that in the last year, the submissions, circulations, average review turnaround time, and international visibility of Asian Journal of Control have advanced steadily. Also, the Asian Journal of Control has gone through several changes in 2011 based on the suggestions we received in the Editorial Board meeting in September, 2011. In the following report, we will present you the updates of these changes and progresses of Asian Journal of Control.
Last year, we restructured the Editorial Board by adding one more level above Editors, namely Editors-at-Large, and invited more Associate Editors to join the Editorial Board, so that the current Board consists of one Honorary Editor-in-Chief, one Editor-in-Chief, two Advisory Editors, fourteen Editors-at-Large, five Editors, and thirty one Associate Editors (March 2012). We also recruited two editorial assistants to help invite authors of high-quality international conferences papers to submit their further research results as a journal paper to AJC, and we have received more than 100 positive responses so far, indicating that the reputation of our journal is well recognized.
In the previous years, due to limit of page budget, the unpleasant backlog problem bothers us. Last year, the publisher John Wiley & Sons agreed to move up the page budget from November, 2011 to the end of 2012. With the help from John Wiley & Sons, the just mentioned backlog problem up to the end of 2012 has considerably been alleviated. Meanwhile, we keep publishing early view papers online at our Early View Center, presenting more than 135 papers online, which also helps in relieving the backlog problem resulted before the page budget was increased (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1934-6093/earlyview).
In May, 2011, we held a Best Paper Award and elected Prof. Roel Merry's paper to be the best paper over years 2009~2010 (http://www.ajc.org.tw/pages/nominationmain.htm). Despite the Best Paper Award, we invite our AEs to single out nine Outstanding Reviewers of 2011, to whom we provide the certification to appreciate them providing solid review comments for AJC (http://www.ajc.org.tw/pages/outstandingmain.htm).
Furthermore, we published two special issues: "Iterative Learning Control" and "Analysis and Control of Biological Networks" in January, 2011 and September, 2011, respectively. We also launched two special issues in 2011: "Advances in Fractional Order Control and Estimation" and "Advances in Active Control of Sound and Vibration." The deadline of the first one is already over, and we have received higher than 30 papers submitted to "Advances in Fractional Order Control and Estimation", which shows the popularity of the theme. In the future, we will keep encouraging our editorial board members and respectable scholars to propose more popular and interesting special issues.
Because of the above-mentioned advances, AJC has received 480 submissions in 2011, which are 100 more than the highest one over the previous three years. Besides, the regional distribution of submissions becomes diversified: we have 123 submissions (25.6% of 480) from regions other than Asian countries, which is higher than the percentage of 19.6% in 2010, showing that the journal is becoming a more internationally recognized journal. In 2012, we are focusing on increasing the efficiency of review process and the quality of the accepted papers.
The Asian Journal of Control (AJC) has made great progress from its collaboration with John Wiley & Sons since 2008. We regularly report the latest progress in ACA SC meeting. The Editorial Board meets at least once a year in conjunction with the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control to review the publication policies and make recommendations on the improvements of the journal. In addition to ordinary marketing strategies such as email campaigns, press releases, and all kinds of flyers; John Wiley & Sons designed chocolates with AJC journal cover to be distributed in many international conferences. Because of these promotional strategies, the profile of AJC is impressive to the public.
We are joyful to report that we published the review paper entitled "Analysis and Design of Networked Control Systems Using the Additive Noise Model Methodology" last July, which was written by Prof. Graham C. Goodwin, the 2010 IEEE Control Systems Award winner. We launched one special issue "Analysis and Control of Biological Networks" and received 22 submissions; meanwhile, we also encouraged our editorial board members and respectable scholars to propose more popular and interesting special issues. In 2010, we tried hard to publish more than 90 forthcoming papers via Early View Center at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1934-6093/earlyview which effectively relieves the backlog of our accepted papers. The most exciting news is that the time from submission till online publication of certain papers was reduced to less than 7 months.
Next, we will have some statistics of AJC publication particularly in year 2010 and in the year before that. The total number of AJC submissions remain almost the same from 2008-2010. In comparison with 2009, we had similar submissions from the U.S. and from the Europe as well. Such promising status shows that Asian Journal of Control is really a world circulating journal. Till the end of 2010, we completed 75% first round of reviews for 369 submissions, while only 69% first round of reviews for AJC papers were completed by the end of year 2009. 88% reviews were done in 4 months and 73% reviews were completed in 3 months for 2010 AJC submissions; the review turnaround time was improved steadily by contrast. To our surprise, the number of institutions registered to opt-in complimentary journals rose from 600 in year 2009 to 1642 in year 2010. The Asian Journal of Control has become a leading publication in the control filed. In the future, we will particularly focus on the efficiency of review and online publication. Besides, the Board will solicit high-quality review papers as well as invited papers in areas within the technical scope of the journal very soon.
Asian Journal of Control is currently the only official periodical of Asian Control Association (ACA) at the moment. However, we constantly open up the possibility to establish other ACA periodicals, or we seek chances to publish books for our ACA members. So far, CRC Press has been contacted as a possible publisher for producing our book publications. In the following, we will have a quick review of the progress of AJC publication particularly in year 2008 and some statistics in the year before that.
Asian Journal of Control (AJC) stepped into the tenth year in 2008; the biggest improvement was the collaboration with the internationally outstanding publisher, John Wiley & Sons. Starting from the collaboration, the quarterly journal transferred to bimonthly journal. With the professional assistance of John Wiley & Sons, the journal proceeded with a lot of marketing strategies, such as email campaign, press release, e-letter, flyers, providing institutional free online journal in 2008-2010. The journal also launched two popular special issues: "Recent Developments in Multidimensional Systems, Control and Signals – Theory and Applications" and "Petri Nets for System Control and Automation" in 2008.
The total number of AJC submissions was 371 in 2008, which is nearly 37% increasing as compared with that in last year. In comparison with 2007, we also have significant growth of submissions from the U.S. and from the Europe. Such promising status shows that Asian Journal of Control is really an internationally recognized journal. Till early January in 2009, the first rounds of review for 222 papers have been completed, 74% reviews were done in 4 months and 88% reviews were completed in 5 months. Although the submission increases rapidly, the journal still keeps its turnaround time mostly within 3-4 months. Based on statistics in 2007, the acceptance rate and rejection rate were 26% and 62%, respectively, and the rejection rate in 2008 rose to 63% up to now. Such high rejection rate, similar to that of other prestigious journals in control field, indicates that Asian Journal of Control remains to be top quality journal.
