EiC Farewell and Welcome to New EiC

It has been with great honor and responsibility that I have served as the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of IEEE C
ommunications
L
etters
for the last four years (2019–2023). The role of EiC has become part of my everyday life and allowed me to work directly with a truly committed team of over 150 Editors, including Review Editors, Senior Editors, Area Editors, Expert Editors for invited papers, and Executive Editors. During my two terms as EiC, we handled more than 3000 manuscripts annually, which we processed rigorously and timely ensuring a turnaround time of no more than 40 days for more than 90% of submitted papers while reducing the number of papers reviewed beyond 50 days to just a handful. Despite the large number of papers and the short turnaround time, our Editors have secured high-quality reviews and spent a significant amount of time in justifying their editorial decisions for all handled papers. To ensure a better distribution of the editorial tasks, we have restructured the editorial board, by grouping the Editors into 13 thematic areas, each led by one Area Editor and one Senior Editor, who have been instrumental in ensuring coherence between the technical content of the papers reviewed and the technical scope of IEEE Communications Letters, as well as assisting the Review Editors in ensuring the highest quality and timeliness of the review process. We have introduced the role of Executive Editors, who worked daily with me in analyzing and assigning the submitted papers to the Review Editors. To promote some emerging areas, we have solicited invited papers from distinguished researchers, and we have introduced the role of Expert Editors for assisting me in the analysis of these papers. During the last four years, 46 invited 5-page papers were published in IEEE C
ommunications
L
etters
. To ensure an informed review process, we have introduced custom questions at the time of submission, which has allowed us to conduct a thorough analysis of all papers before initiating the review process. This allowed us to avoid cases of pre-publishing or plagiarism. To offer authors their preferred review process, we have given them the option to select two types of review processes: single-blind and double-blind. This has been well received by the authors and approximately 50% of the submitted papers are now reviewed according to the single-blind or double-blind peer-review process) Also, to better present the content of the journal, we have reorganized the table of contents by introducing thematic areas aligned with the structure of the editorial board) At present, the impact factor of the IEEE C
ommunications
L
etters
is the highest since the journal was established.