SIREV Welcomes New Survey and Review Editor
January 30, 2003
Featured in the Fall 2002 issue of SIAM Review was a cover Survey and Review paper on the spatiotemporal complexity of plankton and fish dynamics
SIAM Review, unique among SIAM journals in including the entire membership on its subscriber list, has been lucky enough to have editors who are both visionary and attentive to the details that go into turning an idea into a lively, informative, readable paper appropriate for the extremely broad readership. The journal has five sections (Survey and Review, Problems and Techniques, SIGEST, Education, and Book and Software Reviews), each (except for SIGEST) with its own editor and editorial board; overseeing all this is editor-in-chief Margaret Wright.
The focus here is on just one of the sections--Survey and Review--on the occasion of a change in its leadership. On January 1, Randy LeVeque of the University of Washington became editor of the section, succeeding Nick Trefethen of Oxford University, who held the position for four years (since 1999, when the journal first appeared in its present format).
LeVeque, in a late 2002 conversation with SIAM News, made it clear that the care devoted to each S&R paper (30-80 pages long, on average, often with extensive illustrations and references) will not change, nor will the section's commitment to provide readers "with a comprehensive and up-to-date perspective on a major topic of broad interest to SIAM members."
As in the past, many papers will be written by invitation of the editorial board. However, LeVeque stressed that proposals for S&R papers are always welcome from the community; he encourages people to consider writing papers in areas that are ripe for review.
It's best not to write a paper without some preliminary communication with the editorial board, he cautioned, as the group has well-defined expectations for the section's articles. The editors prefer "integrative papers that provide an overview of a body of research"; papers presenting "connections to other fields or techniques are particularly desirable. Papers that focus primarily on the authors' own research are generally not suitable." An expanded set of guidelines for authors can be found on the journal's Web site and will appear in each issue of the journal.
As of January 1, the members of the S&R editorial board are Andrea Bertozzi, Jon Chapman, Simon Levin, Michael Overton, Niles Pierce, Dan Rockmore, James Sethian, and Nick Trefethen. Each will be happy to consider and provide feedback on proposals, as will LeVeque.
Papers should be submitted directly to SIAM; electronic submission is preferred. At that point, rigorous peer review--by the section editor, members of the section editorial board, and outside reviewers, with final review by the SIREV editor-in-chief--will be carried out to ensure the highest standards of accuracy, completeness, exposition, and clarity.
