The Annals has had a variety of different departments over the life of the journal. In recent years the departments in use have been Think Piece, Anecdotes, Reviews, Events & Sightings, Biographies, and Interviews. Pieces for the departments are typically less than half the length of peer-reviewed feature articles. Writing for the departments also does not go through the Annals peer-review process and instead is reviewed and edited by the relevant department editor, who also works with the author to choose an appropriate length for what's written.

If you are thinking of a contribution to one of the departments, see department guidelines under "Writing for Us" on the Annals home page; the guidelines page also includes email addresses for department editors to allow sending your ideas to a department editor. Below is more information about the diversity and history of publication in some departments:

Anecdotes department

• List of prior anecdotes and department editors
• A few examples of anecdotes

Biographies department

• List of prior biographies ordered by volume and issue and alphabetically by name of the person featured in the biography
• Guidelines for writing for the Biographies Department

Events and Sightings department

• Complete list of all prior E&S pieces published in the Annals — this is still in its developmental phase in terms of formatting
• Contributions of Akihiko Yamada and the TICSP series on the history of signal processing

Interviews department

• List of prior interviews and department name changes and editor history