News Detail

ACI Journals—Premier Publications of the Institute

9/3/2019

In June, I had the opportunity to visit ACI world headquarters in Farmington Hills, MI, for the summer Executive Committee meeting. While there, I briefly chatted with Rex Donahey, Editor-in-Chief of Concrete International. He suggested that I discuss some of the ideas that Robert Frosch has regarding the ACI Structural Journal—ideas that are also relevant to the ACI Materials Journal. Robert Frosch and Jason Weiss were named Editors-in-Chief of the ACI Structural Journal and ACI Materials Journal, respectively, in 2018. Each Editor-in-Chief is joined by four subject-matter experts to make up an Editorial Board for each journal.

Like most things at ACI, the journals have been advancing into the digital age. Hard copies of manuscripts are no longer submitted and then mailed out to reviewers. Instead, there is a publications portal on ACI’s website that manages the submission, editorial reviews, and disposition of all peer-reviewed manuscripts. Also a change from the days of receiving hard copies in the mail is the dissemination of the bimonthly journals electronically to those who subscribe.

The Editorial Boards will focus on the mission of making and keeping ACI’s serial publications the premier place to publish for academic researchers in the field of concrete. The Boards' initial missions include identifying new topics for commissioned works and special editions and advising on the direction for the journals, making suggestions for bothsubject matter and potential authors, providing content by writing occasional editorials and other short articles, overseeing journal quality, and more.

Last year marked the 115th year of publication of ACI journals. Over the years, the format has morphed from an annual Proceedings volume to the two bimonthly journals and monthly magazine that we have today. During this period, there have been over 9000 papers and discussions published in the various ACI journals. What may not be known is that all 9000 papers have been scanned by ACI and can be downloaded at no cost to members of the Institute. Past papers can be found on ACI's website under each publication's portal. Over the years, these publications have influenced the way concrete structures are built and how building codes and specifications are developed, resulting in more economical and safer concrete construction.

So, to keep the focus on improving the quality of publications, Frosch believes that more experts need to be involved as reviewers. Reviewing papers is probably not the top priority on members’ lists of giving back to the profession. However, providing one’s expertise in reviewing a paper in one's field can be profoundly rewarding. Reviewers' comments can strengthen the content of the paper, and such comments provide for continuous improvement in the scholarly work published by ACI.

Frosch also argues that the best reviewers come from members of subject-matter committees. Where else can the best expertise be found other than from members of ACI's technical committees? These are the individuals who are producing the consensus state-of-the-art reports, guidelines, standards, and codes that are the hallmarks of ACI.

I spoke to Frosch about other ideas that might enhance the ACI journals in the future. He had several good ideas, some of which were discussed at the Executive Committee meeting. These included ways to enhance the look and delivery of the journals. While the journals are now sent to members digitally, the reviewing of papers can be a bit cumbersome. In addition, the website publications portal could be restructured to make it a more user-friendly experience.

Frosch also indicated that it would be helpful to have a singular point of contact for the journals—a Managing Director/Editor of Publications. This would likely be an ACI engineering staff person who would be the individual that authors could reach out to concerning reviews or other questions. Of course, this individual at ACI world headquarters would have the Editors of the journals to rely on to discuss specific issues, but the Managing Editor would provide a single point of contact. These are some of the items under discussion.

The journals are among the many strengths of ACI. We should always be looking for ways to improve them so that ACI remains the go-to place for learning about and advancing all things concrete.

Randall W. Poston

American Concrete Institute