A New Service: Archiving Supplemental Material to Journal Publication

Abstract

In my May 2008 editorial, I had mentioned our desire to offer more archiving publication options for materials that exceed the current presentation capabilities of the journal as a print medium. I am pleased to let you know that authors of ASME Transactions Journals will be now able to submit material supplemental to their papers. The ASME journals team has made this service available through the Electronic Physics Auxiliary Publication Service (EPAPS) depository of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). It will be provided without charge to the author. Last Fall, the ASME Transactions Editors council appointed a committee consisting of Jerry Miller, Panos Papalambros, Bahgat Sammakia and Demetri Telionis, and charged it with setting up guidelines for the implementation of this new archiving mode. These guidelines are provided further below.We all feel that the following three elements are very important for the success of this new archiving program: (i) reviewing the material; (ii) making it available for posterity and (iii) establishing standards. We recognize that this new capability will increase the workload of both editors and reviewers, and we should make sure that this increase be minimal. The proposed guidelines aim to accommodate these goals.ASME is launching this service on a trial period, with some journal editors volunteering to get it started and report on their experience. The plan is to have this service available to all journals.I am pleased to make this new venue available to JMD authors. We will be providing further information and updates at the JMD website http://www.asmejmd.org. As this program moves forward, both the Associate Editors and I will welcome input from authors and reviewers on how to make this new service efficient and valuable to the JMD constituents.