1/1/2008 Authors: McCarthy, J.M, Papalambros, P.Y.
Volume: 130(1) – January, 2008
The transition to a new Editor for the Journal of Mechanical Design has been completed. In mid-November the ASME Publications Committee approved the nomination of Professor Panos Y. Papalambros of the University of Michigan submitted by the current Editor Michael McCarthy and the Executive Committee of the Design Engineering Division. The Journal of Mechanical Design has become increasingly recognized as a premier venue for design research, a success one might be tempted to attribute to the Technical Editors. Indeed, it is the Associate Editors who have been working diligently and directly with authors and reviewers around the world to build a community that values high quality design research; they deserve the credit for the Journal’s successes. The Journal’s authors are ultimately what makes the Journal what it is, bringing their new ideas and discoveries to the Journal, to share them with us all. We wish to celebrate these dedicated colleagues, editors and authors, who are working now and into the new year to ensure JMD remains the outstanding venue for mechanical design research.
The success of JMD comes at a time of success for the entire Design Engineering Division (DED) of ASME. Five scholarly journals are now associated with the DED, the Journal of Mechanical Design, Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, Journal of Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering, Journal of Mechanical Devices, and the Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics. A sixth, the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics (JMR), has been approved by the ASME Publications Committee to start accepting submissions this year. Michael McCarthy has been appointed as the first Technical Editor of the new journal. JMR will accommodate some topics traditionally served by JMD, and thus offer JMD literally more space to be both more inclusive and more focused. We will be working together to maintain journal excellence and quality service to the design community at large.
The growth in scholarship within the DED activities provides clear evidence that mechanical design research is an integrative domain where researchers from many disciplines are finding new opportunities to contribute to expanding technological capabilities, and to assess their impact on engineering practice and society. The journal editors and associate editors work with reviewers and authors around the world to identify and sharpen the presentation of research contributions for the benefit of authors and readers alike. This is a vital service to both the academic scholarship and the practice of engineering design.
