Page 35 - Summer 2015

Venerableness
JASA has been in existence for 86 years. Although there are some journals that are older, it can probably be counted as among the top 10% of the world's oldest journals. It is definitely the world's oldest journal specifically devoted to acoustics.
Name Recognition and Branding
There is no doubt that, if a random person were asked to name a journal that pub- lishes papers related to acoustics, the most frequent response by far would be JASA.
Wide Availability
Although it is not true that all of the world's
scientific libraries subscribe to JASA, there
are many such subscribing libraries scat-
tered throughout the world, with over
half of them being outside the United States. Because of the way subscriptions are currently bundled, with several organizations jointly having access because of a single sub- scription, the exact number is hard to pin down. Apart from some researchers and readers who live or work in develop- ing (or emerging) countries, there are few such people who are not affiliated with an institution that has access to JASA. The situation is, of course, not as good as it could and should be, and the nature of the times is such that the situation con- tinues to deteriorate. However, I believe it continues to be far better for JASA than for those of competing journals that are not associated with professional societies.
Guaranteed Access and a Greater Chance of Being Noticed by a Substantial Number of Professionals
in the Field
All members of the ASA have online access to JASA as part of their membership benefits. Many receive the print ver- sion, delivered to either their home or work address. A list- ing of the Table of Contents (TOC) of each new issue is sent regularly via e-mail to all the members of the Society.
Backing of a Long-Established Professional Society
The ASA has over 7,000 members, with nearly half of the membership outside the United States, and the member- ship has held steady for several decades. As long as people hear and speak and as long as sound continues to propagate through various forms of matter, there will be a scientific interest in acoustics and there will be a professional society that will trace its roots back to the ASA. The membership is committed to the continued existence of the Journal and
Figure 2. Comparison chart listing some of the leading journals in acoustics. Chart is based on data compiled by Thomson-Reuters and was prepared by Mary Guillemette, Acoustical Society of America (ASA) Publications Manager.
to the maintenance of its excellence, and there seems little doubt that that commitment will continue throughout the indefinite future.
A Critical Mass of Associate Editors with High
Expertise Who Collectively Cover Almost All of the Subfields of Acoustics
This exists because the associate editors (AEs) for the most part serve voluntarily, and they give such voluntary service in major part because they are committed to the ASA mis- sion. Having such a critical mass is very difficult, for exam- ple, for a journal associated with a commercial organization, and it is also difficult for journals that have a much broader range of coverage. If one submits a paper to JASA, one stands an excellent chance of having the paper handled by an AE who understands the paper and who is competent to render a fair judgment, possibly assisted (not directed) by external reviewers, on the merits of the paper regarding its publication.
Publication in a Journal That Is Extensively
Read and Cited
Partly because of its long history of publication and partly because of its continued publishing of quality works, JASA is by far the most widely cited of all the world's journals deal- ing with acoustics (see Figure 2). The total number of world- wide citations per year continues to climb (Figure 3) and is presently on the order of 40,000 citations per year. What this implies is that a paper published in JASA is likely to be noticed and read, not just for the first two years after publi- cation but for many years to come. This success is possibly because all of the past Society’s publications, going back to
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