Mincing words: Q & A with Joe Hartman, editor of The Engineering Economist.

In November 2003, Joe Hartman, Ph.D., was named editor-in-chief of The Engineering Economist. A longtime member of IIE and the American Society of Engineering Education, Hartman has served as an EE area editor since 1998.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Hartman is an associate professor

of industrial and systems engineering at Lehigh University, serving as the George N. Kledaras Chair. He earned his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996. He also holds an M.S. in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech and a B.S. in general engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Appropriately, Hartman's research is in the area of engineering economics, focusing on applications in equipment replacement. His work is funded by a number of companies and the National Science Foundation. In 2000, he was presented with the Eugene L. Grant award for the best paper published by The Engineering Economist. He received IIE's Outstanding Young IE Award in 2002.

Q: What attracted you to this position?

A: I have been interested in the position of editor-in-chief of The Engineering Economist since I can remember. I wrote my dissertation at Georgia Tech under the guidance of Jack Lohmann while he was editor of the journal. Jerry Thuesen, another former editor, was on my dissertation committee. In essence, I have been around the journal for as long as I have been aware of engineering economics. I was fortunate that Chan Park, the previous editor, asked me to be an area editor in 1998.

Q: What sets EE apart from other publications?

A: It is unique for a number of reasons. First, it is an interdisciplinary journal. While many of the authors and readers are industrial engineers, we get contributions from all areas of engineering, including chemical, civil, and mechanical. Additionally, contributions come from outside engineering, including business schools. Second, it is a journal with both a research and an educational mission. The journal is a joint publication of IIE and ASEE. This tradition is unique in that it promotes the publication of articles on both research and teaching. Third, the area of capital investment--the journal's slogan is "A journal devoted to the problems of capital investment"--is one that is shared by engineering economists and those in business. However, this journal is unique in that it caters to being a soundboard for engineers, although we get contributions from other fields as well.

Q: What are your plans for EE?

A: I have a lot of ideas for the journal and I am eager to sit down with the Editorial Board and determine our best course of action. Chan Park worked tremendously hard to bring more people to the journal, especially through the special issues, which were unprecedented in the journal's history. I hope to continue this tradition of having more focused issues on timely research topics.

There will be some drastic changes to the journal in the near future that the readership may not notice. One major change is the move to Taylor and Francis being our publisher. This will allow the editor to focus on journal content and not layout.

Other major changes will be in the manuscript handling process. These changes will include online submissions and the electronic handling of manuscripts. This process should decrease the time that an article spends in review and decrease the cost of producing the journal. This will also lead to more possibilities, such as online publications and an online searchable database.