About this issue
本期编辑评论指出，更多实践者论文出现在期刊中是一个积极信号，并鼓励非学术作者投稿，同时讨论了期刊与工程管理评论的互补角色。
This issue may not yet constitute a trend, but it provides an encouraging sign that more “practitioner” or “non-academic” papers are feasible for this Transactions — a goal that the Administrative Committee, Publication Committee, and many members of the Engineering Management Society (EMS) of IEEE would like to see furthered. Three of the four papers in this issue are authored by practitioners (four of the five total authors are located in government and industrial organizations). A long-term objective of our editorial policy has been to combine state-of-the-art research papers with state-of-practice papers written by people involved in the actual management of Research, Development, and Engineering (RD&E). We will continue to encourage submission by the latter group (the former group has automatic incentives which are built into the research academic system) and to provide assistance in paper preparation and revision for technical journal publication. This Transactions and the Engineering Management Review (now in its ninth year of publication by the EMS of IEEE) provide a balanced “package” of reading to EMS members and others in the field of RD&E management. Between them, they provide the latest research findings and theoretical approaches to problems in the field as well as “how to” articles and non-research studies and analysis that can provide management aids and insights. It is not feasible for one publication to fulfill both roles within the same set of editorial policies and objectives. In addition, most managers, including EMS members, read other publications in and peripheral to the general management field that can provide professional input to their work. Publications such as Harvard Business Review, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, and specialized trade publications (Electronic News, Government Executive, Industrial Research) all can contribute to a manager's insights about and practice of management. Dependence on one publication that “does it all” in the same way that dependence on only one publication in a broad technical field (computers, instrumentation, etc.) is potentially dangerous when a diversified view of the field is required. In any event, we continue to solicit papers, outlines, and inquiries from practicing managers of RD&E aimed at publication in this Transactions.