What Makes Our Magazine Different? [From the Editor's Desk]

In this editorial, I would like to talk about magazines. Many of the technical papers we publish look a lot like transactions papers—they emphasize contribution and are complete with many equations, references, and perhaps even theorems. Our reviewers and associate editors subject these submissions to a rigorous review process where they look for novel contribution, check the equations, and ensure adequacy of references. However, our IEEE Robotics and Automation Society also publishes IEEE Transactions on Robotics and IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, so what makes the magazine different? IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine's guidelines for authors (at http://ieee-ras.org/ram) states that our goal is to publish readable and substantive articles that present new scientific results to the practicing engineer through a focus on working systems. It does not say that we are looking for transactions-style articles.