The publishing image and landscape with regard to MRS involvement is changing. “It is not just the old blue book set anymore,” said Steven C. Moss, a member of the New Publications Products Subcommittee at the Materials Research Society. Since partnering with Cambridge University Press, MRS has been focusing on publishing high-quality scientific books and book series, available in a variety of formats, in print as well as electronically. Most importantly for materials researchers, this partnership has opened a new avenue to authoring a book or spearheading a new journal.
Betsy Fleischer, MRS Principal Development Editor, is the staff liaison to the Subcommittee. As a materials scientist herself with connections to the materials community, she oversees the review of publication proposals in conjunction with the New Publications Products Subcommittee and Cambridge University Press. Information on how to propose a new book or journal is prominently displayed on the MRS website.
Cambridge University Press as a publisher of high-quality technical books—that also have a professional and appealing layout and design—brings international recognition to the table, as well as streamlined editorial approaches and methods. MRS, on the other side, has great experience in promoting the exchange of cutting-edge research and attracting world-class researchers to join them in this endeavor. The partnership combines everything that is needed to publish influential technical books of value to materials researchers.
Texts already on the market as a part of this partnership include Richard LeSar’s Introduction to Computational Materials Science: Fundamentals to Applications and editors Gerasimos Konstantatos and Edward H. Sargent’s book Colloidal Quantum Dot Optoelectronics and Photovoltaics. The vast majority of journal articles on either topic have been published within the last 10 years, and their number is still increasing in year-by-year comparisons. Books available on computational methods tend to focus on a specific method or on a narrow range of phenomena or applications, which can be investigated by theoretical means. The timeliness and value to the materials community of LeSar’s textbook, however, is that it is one of only a handful of textbooks that addresses the breadth of materials science.
The partnership between MRS and Cambridge University Press will not be limited to just publishing books. MRS Energy & Sustainability—A Review Journal is a new journal in their pipeline. The first issue will come out later this year. One goal of the new journal is to disseminate reviews on current energy- and sustainability-related topics in materials research and development beyond the traditional readership target of scientists and academics. This journal aims to reach policymakers and industry professionals as well. David S. Ginley (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA), David Cahen (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), and Sally M. Benson (Stanford University, USA), as Editors-in-Chief of the new journal, will be supported by a similarly illustrious advisory board in this quest. The new journal will join the current portfolio of MRS Bulletin, Journal of Materials Research, MRS Communications, and MRS Online Proceedings Library.
Richard A. Vaia, chair of the Subcommittee, said that the New Publications Products Subcommittee is welcoming inquiries. The Subcommittee looks toward the materials community to identify emerging research areas meriting publication.
