One of IFToMM’s important quests is to support high-level publication media for the scientific findings of IFToMM members and beyond. This is done by means of affiliated and recommended journals, proceedings, book series, textbooks and other media.
In addition to the flagship and official research journal of IFToMM – the journal “Mechanism and Machine Theory” which was established right at the beginning of IFToMM in 1972 by the founders of IFToMM – the Federation also wishes to support new striving journals and other publication media in subfields or geographical regions of IFToMM as additional information channels for its members and other scientific communities.
To accommodate for the large spectrum of interests and demands within the IFToMM community while keeping the main compass of its historic background and excellence standards, the Federation has structured its current and future relationships with publication media in four tiers or categories, as described in the table below.
Tier 1: Official IFToMM recommended journal and book series for publishing top and original results in all fields covered by IFToMM
Tier 2: Complementary Journals, Proceedings and Book Series covering specific fields of IFToMM for publishing up-to-date results from IFToMM working groups
This tier holds on the one side the official and founding journal of IFToMM, and is the primary venue for publications in all fields covered by IFToMM. Cooperation between IFToMM and this journal is traditionally very high in order to ensure high standards, regular interaction and collegial coordination with the Publisher and the Editor-in-Chief on issues regarding the Editorial Board, reviewing procedure, newsletter channels, and historical background of IFToMM. On the other side in this tier also the Springer Nature Series Mechanism and Machine Science (MMS) is allocated, for which a strong cooperation and agreement between IFToMM and Springer Nature has been established, and which is the preferred media for publication of IFToMM conference proceedings.
Tier 2
Complementary affiliated journals, proceedings, and book series, providing high-quality contributions with focused scope as well as from larger geographical subregions of IFToMM. Cooperation with IFToMM is high, with most decisions on editorial matters, review procedures and quality standards achieved in coordination between IFToMM and the Publisher or the Editor-in-Chief.
Tier 3
Community journals, conference proceedings and books on regional or specialized areas of research with independent publisher policies. Publication media in this Tier cover highly dynamic, regional, or more specialized interests within the IFToMM community. These media have less formal monitoring procedures by IFToMM.
Tier 4
Preprint papers, books of abstracts, and small-series publications. This is a venue to bring rapid visibility to ongoing activities within IFToMM. It is open to publication media from all IFToMM members, committees, and commissions. Inclusion requires confirmation by the originator of responsibility for ethical and good-practice standards in publication.
To ensure a well-balanced and internationally representative selection of affiliated journals and their allotment to tiers 2 to 4, the Executive Council is counselled by an international Advisory Board for Publications, appointed by the Executive Council according to Article 5.9 of IFToMM’s constitution, and consisting of ten internationally renowned experts including as chair the Executive Council (EC) representative for publications. The Advisory Board for Publications evaluates proposals for journal affiliation, defines the rationale for the allotment to tiers, coordinates the lines of Memoranda of Understanding between IFToMM and the Publishers, defines the contributions to IFToMM by the affiliated journals, and reports to the Executive Council. The final decision on affiliation and allotment to tiers is determined by the Executive Council during its regular meetings based on the recommendation of the Advisory Board for Publications.
Proposals for publication media affiliation can be directed to publication-affairs@iftomm-world.org using the corresponding application form “IFToMM Form 14 – Publication Media Affiliation Request.pdf” downloadable under IFToMM forms repository .
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