Swiss Empa to collaborate with Japanese NIMS
On January 27, 2014, Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, and the NIMS Japanese National Institute for Materials Science signed a five year collaborative agreement on co-publishing the open access journal STAM “Science and Technology of Advanced Materials”. Both Empa and NIMS are the leading materials science research institutes with a history of more than half a century
STAM was founded in 2000, and in 2008, NIMS took the helm of this peer review and financial systems, resulting in a continuous rise of the impact from1267 in 2008 to 3752 in 2012.
Accepted articles are made available online through an open access platform by the Institute of Physics Publishing (GB). In January 2014, Empa joined NIMS in the editorial management of STAM. Empa CEO Gian-Luca Bona has agreed to act as a STAM Regional Editor, whereas Harald Krug, member of Empa’s Board of Directors, will become the new Co-Editor-in-Chief.
Bona decLared: “it is our intention to attract high impact contributions from Europe and the U.S. to STAM, thus make the journal one of the world’s leadi8ng publications in materials science. We plan to extend the scope of the journal to cover new technology areas such as the use of novel materials for medical applications. This will enhance the visibility and the overall appeal of STAM.
Sukekatsu Ushioda, president of NIMS, welcomed Empa’s participation and specifies that “Empa will provide new opportunities for STAM to attract high impact contributions from Europe and the U.S., thus Empa is a big step towards supporting STAM, it will make the journal more respectable and improve its global reach. STAM is expected to cover traditional materials science fields with an accent on energy and environmental issues, but it is also exploring new areas such as medical and bio-engineering applications, where Empa has a significant expertise.”
Empa will set up a STAM editorial office in Switzerland acting as the journal’s hub in Europe.