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POMA
Figure 2. Evolution of POMA article cover pages using examples authored by our incoming Editor Megan Ballard.
Figure 3. Global POMA submissions between 2016 and February 2020, with darker shading representing a greater number of submissions.
to have manuscript templates in both Word and LaTeX, first to pursue a uniform branding (which then changed to match the new ASA brand), and first to significantly promote papers and authors on Twitter and Facebook. It has been a busy last several years!
Promoting the Global Reach of the Acoustical Society of America
One of the purposes of POMA is to help grow the global reach of the Society (Figure 3). This is happening, and it’s exciting. From January 2016 through February 2020, 62% of the nearly 1,200 papers submitted have come
from outside the United States, from a total of 54 differ- ent countries. After the United States, the countries with
the most submissions are (in order) China, Japan, Ger- many, United Kingdom, Russia, France, Italy, Argentina, and Spain. Almost as many papers originate from Asia as from the United States, and over 13% of submissions originate from Spanish-speaking countries. Our involve- ment with cosponsored meetings plays an important role. In 2020, in addition to the ASA meeting in Chicago, POMA will host the proceedings of the International Conference on Underwater Acoustics, which is being organized by the Institute of Acoustics of the United Kingdom and will be held virtually.
Promoting Student Involvement
Another way of promoting the reach of the ASA is to engage the next generation of acousticians. Students present a substantial fraction of papers at ASA meet- ings yet struggle to turn excellent talks and posters into publishable manuscripts. POMA offers a rapid publi- cation opportunity for preliminary results or works in progress, with a reasonable bar for success. Additionally, POMA provides a valuable opportunity for students to gain initial experience in technical writing and receive expert and impartial feedback from the POMA edito- rial board. And, in case you haven’t heard the message loud and clear before, a POMA article does not count as a prior publication as far as JASA or JASA-EL are concerned. This should help authors rapidly dissemi- nate findings presented at ASA or other meetings and then reduce the effort in preparing a refined JASA-EL or longer JASA manuscript.
Social Media
One of the purposes of ASA is to disseminate and pro- mote the science and applications of acoustics. Although the dissemination of new scientific knowledge occurs in POMA and other journals, social media allows us to better promote acoustics to the public. POMA joined the social media fray in November 2016 and now has over 1,000 followers on Twitter (@ASA_POMA) and over 750 followers on Facebook (@ASAPOMA; Figure 4). Hun- dreds of different articles have been highlighted through social media posts, from applications of machine learn- ing to noise impacts on tree frogs to ultrasonic surface acoustic waves. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that engagement by POMA on social media allows us to participate in the global conversation in acoustics through retweets, comments, and shares.
80 Acoustics Today • Summer 2020