Colleagues,
We have now completed two years of web-based paper review and publication for the Journal of Mechanical Design. Over 760 papers, approximately 380 for each of the two years, were submitted, and the review process has been completed for 608 of these papers, averaging five months from submission to a decision. As a result, 215 papers have been accepted for publication. Approximately, the same number of papers appeared in print, which means the production backlog is the same now as when I began as Editor.
The ASME Publication Committee has agreed to support an additional 200 pages for the Journal in 2005, which brings the page count for this year to 1300. These pages are to be dedicated to a supplement to the July 2005 issue assembled and organized by our Associate Editors Profs. Larry Howell and Suresh Ananthasuresh. The working title for this supplement is “Design in Nano-, Micro- and Biologically Oriented Systems.”
I continue to be impressed by the commitment of our Associate Editors to the prompt and effective review of submitted manuscripts, and by the detailed and useful recommendations provide by all of our reviewers. This is a service not simply to those authors whose papers are accepted for publication, but to all authors who take the time to share their ideas and insights, and in return obtain the evaluation and advice of their peers. It enhances the scholarship of the entire mechanical design research community.
