2009 Volume 52 Issue 6 Pages 323-333
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (STAM), which is an international academic journal in materials science, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2009. The journal was founded in 1999 by the members of materials science related academic societies, in response to the momentum toward the creation of an international, high-profile, professional journal in Japan, a country leading the research in materials science. Most Japanese academic journals are published by academic societies as part of their activities; members support the review and editing of the papers as their community activities, and these academic societies gain profit or improve their social profile through the journal publication. STAM stands in a unique position in that the entire process of publication and management is carried out, in practice, by the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), although STAM is a product of the cooperation between NIMS and several academic societies. NIMS not only carries out research studies but also foster information dissemination research their achievements as the only institute specializing in materials science in Japan. The publication of an academic journal is thus considered as a core infrastructure development of NIMS. The goals of STAM are to publish review papers on marked achievements and progress in research and to share them in a community of materials scientists using the NIMS network and collaborative institutions at home and abroad, under the enthusiastic leadership of the NIMS President. To this end, NIMS, despite its institutional nature, must maintain the editorial operation and stable publication of STAM. Through a stepwise improvement of its operation and editorial system, STAM evolved from a subscription-based journal to an institute-supported open-access journal in January 2008. This indicates a change in emphasis from quantity, i.e., the number of papers, to quality, as the journal aims to include only papers essential to materials researchers. STAM adopts the model of a journal led by a community of researchers, in which scientists can freely report and review their achievements (free to submit), read papers (free to read), and obtain the copyright themselves (author-friendly copyright). The perspective from the time of creation to the maturation of STAM is overviewed by comparing STAM with New Journal of Physics (published by Institute of Physics Publishing), the academic journal launched in England before STAM with the same principle and one of the successful open-access journal models.
