Dear ASA Publications Readers, Authors, Reviewers, and Friends,
Normally, I only write one Editorial each winter, to update information on the state of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA). However, normal is not a word one would apply to the current year, and so I am writing (with input from ASA leadership, ASA Publications, and AIP Publishing) an additional Editorial to inform you of recent events, which have largely been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our news here is largely good news, which I hope will supply you with a little encouragement in these discouraging days.
Our first piece of good news, for those who interact with our publications, is that we are functioning more-or-less normally. Most of our Publications staff has been working remotely for almost two years now, and so has suffered no significant disruption in work patterns. The staffs of AIP Publishing and our vendors are able to work remotely as well, so our publication chain for all of ASA Publications is functioning well.
Moreover, submissions seem to be relatively stable as well. While there surely will be fluctuations, we are seeing that the acoustics community is still continuing to publish their results, even though universities, laboratories, and businesses are running at reduced levels, if at all. We have had a few requests for some additional time to write/review/revise manuscripts, and our unilateral answer has been “of course.” All reasonable requests will be answered in the affirmative.
You may have noticed messaging on the JASA journal home page alerting users that in an effort to support the continuity of global research during the COVID-19 pandemic, content across the Scitation platform will be freely available to scientists who are impacted. This solution is meant to be temporary until researchers are able to return to their campuses and their labs. In order to get access, there is a registration process that needs to be followed on Scitation. Please note that ASA members are not impacted as they have access to the ASA publications through their membership.
To give authors more time, we are extending the deadlines for two of our Special Issues that originally had due dates in the summer. The Special Issue on Additive Manufacturing and Acoustics now has a deadline of October 16, 2020, and the Special Issue on Theory and Applications of Acoustofluidics now has a deadline of January 29, 2021. The updated calls for papers for both issues can be found here.1
We also ask our patrons that you extend the same forbearance to our staff. We are trying hard to keep to our usual timeliness, but given that we also are busy trying to make some adjustments to an unusual situation, we might occasionally need some extra time too.
Another thought that we often share, but bears repeating, is that ASA Publications are a resource for the entire world—our Society name represents our origin, but does not adequately describe our modern incarnation. A majority of our JASA, JASA Express Letters, and Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA) articles come from outside the USA, as do a good number of Acoustics Today articles. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us, worldwide, but given the modern publication world, restrictions on physical movement, which will probably be with us for a while, pose no barrier to submitting, reviewing, revising, and publishing a manuscript. We very much want to see and publish your work!
On another positive note, ASA Publications has recently welcomed a new Publications Business Manager, Ms. Malené Walters. Malené comes to us with a strong business and marketing background and has already fit in nicely with our team. Among other things, Malené will be using her marketing and advertising background, along with our team, to find some new ways to promote our authors' work online and on social media. She will also help anchor the substantial business portion of our Publications operation, something that a scientist/editor is not as adept at!
Regarding the part of our operations that normally gets transacted during face-to-face meetings, the internet has again largely come to the rescue. The normal Publications related committee meetings that are held at the ASA Spring meeting will be held via internet teleconferencing, with ASA HQ scheduling the exact times and formats. Many of our day-to-day meetings are already held via teleconference and other meetings have or might be pushed online during the pandemic. So, our usual business practices will continue, with only the format changing for now.
We all look forward to an eventual return to normalcy in the days ahead, but until those days arrive, we will continue to work hard to keep ASA and its Publications vibrant and running smoothly. We wish all of you well and please stay safe.
