• Accepting submissions from autumn 2012 and available online in 2013, the megajournal will cover a full range of engineering topics
• Existing 26 journals to add open access option
• Announcement follows global research project canvassing opinion from 35,000 engineering researchers

 

The Institution of Engineering and

Technology (IET) is to become the first engineering, not-for-profit publisher

to adopt an open access model with the launch of a comprehensive, online-only

open access journal. Open access options will also be added to its existing 26

journals. This is part of the IET’s continuing mission to make essential

engineering intelligence available to the worldwide engineering community,

benefitting researchers who contribute to or use this content.

 

 

The IET, which has 150,000 members in

127 countries around the world and has published engineering journals since

1872, will be inviting submissions for its new open access megajournal from

autumn 2012, with the online-only publication expected to launch in 2013. As a

broad-based engineering journal it will accept papers on a wide range of engineering

topics, rather than focusing on a single specific field. The title and

editor-in-chief of this new publication will be announced later in 2012.

 

 

From 2013, authors will also be able

to choose to make their research free to view in any of the IET’s 26 existing

engineering journals, which include well-known titles such as Electronics

Letters and the newly launched IET Biometrics. Currently all

research papers published by the IET’s journals are available in print and

online to paying subscribers only.

 

 

The IET’s decision to adopt the open

access model comes after a major global review with over 35,000 engineering

researchers from academia and industry to gauge their appetite for open access.

This research found that 87% of engineering researchers said they would

continue to submit articles to a journal if it converted to an open access

model, and around a third of them had previously published in an open access

journal.

 

 

Daniel Smith, Head of Academic

Publishing at the IET, explains: “The recent Finch report has further fuelled

the public debate about open access academic publishing, which we believe is

one of the most significant industry changes in recent years and yet is

complementary to the existing subscription-based model.

 

 

“For authors it not only provides more

choice in terms of where their peer-reviewed papers are published, but offers

them more opportunity to publish high quality cross-disciplinary studies. This

is particularly key in engineering, where many of today’s advances are being made

at the interfaces between subjects. For readers, gaining quick and easy access

to research is of course a major step forward and we are excited by the

potential that open access offers.”

 

 

Tim Hamer, Director of Knowledge at

the IET, adds: “Developing open access to quality engineering content which

accelerates both research and innovation is a major pillar of the IET’s

knowledge strategy. The introduction of our open access megajournal is an

important element within this.  We believe the broad scope of the new

journal and the opportunity to publish open access articles in existing

journals will be a welcome development for the worldwide engineering

community.”

 

 

Media

enquiries to:

 

Lorna

Hughes / Olivia Allen

 

Harvard

PR

 

0207 861

2844 / 0207 861 3967

 

iet@harvard.co.uk