A Successful Year for SIAM Publications

By Kivmars Bowling

2019 has been another busy and successful year for SIAM Publications, thanks in no small part to the many volunteers, editors, authors, referees, and readers who support the program. As the year draws to a close, I want to reflect on recent achievements and highlight some new initiatives.

Submissions to SIAM journals continue to be robust, and 2019 submissions are keeping pace with 2018’s record-breaking numbers. The median time to publication after receipt of an author’s TeX files is now a month faster than it was in 2017. We continue to refine the production process to further increase speed while maintaining SIAM’s established publication standards.

This year, the new SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science (SIMODS) published its first issues under the leadership of editor-in-chief Tammy Kolda and her highly-engaged editorial board. Community response to SIMODS has been incredible and is reflected in the record number of submissions since the journal’s launch. SIMODS will continue to be freely available to everyone in 2020 as part of the launch period, before becoming a subscription journal in 2021.

SIAM also reinforced its commitment to data science with the new Data Science book series, founded with a distinguished editorial board that is led by editor-in-chief Ilse Ipsen. We have already signed the first titles, and I encourage any members with ideas or proposals for the series to reach out to either Ilse or Elizabeth Greenspan (executive editor of SIAM Books) at [email protected].

SIMODS, the Data Science book series, and the inaugural SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science—to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May 2020—have generated a strong interest that bodes well for the future of SIAM in this space. This has allowed us an opportunity to grow and further engage our membership.

SIAM Books has likewise had a robust year, with the institutional e-books program performing well and further expanding the global reach of our publications. We continue to sign a selective list of high-quality monographs and textbooks, and enhanced our textbook promotion this year to ensure that SIAM books are being adopted into curricula and impacting education.

Like many society book programs, we are able to sustain more niche topics by also publishing titles with broader appeal, such as textbooks. We encourage you to think of SIAM for your next—or maybe first—book project. Past-President Nick Higham’s SIAM News article on “Why to Write a Book” and our video about publishing books with SIAM offer valuable insight. Of course, feel free to contact Elizabeth if you have questions or would like to discuss an idea.

Additionally, SIAM is piloting the following new author and reviewer services:

• Peer review recognition for referees: SIAM has launched a pilot program with a service called Publons. Three journals—the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (SISC), the SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis (SIMA), and the SIAM Journal on Optimization (SIOPT)—offer referees the opportunity to earn recognition for reviews on their Publons profiles. Individual referees choose whether to opt in, and while the review itself is not shared with Publons, the fact that the referee has completed a review for the journal is noted. Interestingly, SIAM referees have already added more than 1,000 reviews to their profiles without SIAM involvement. The formal pilot will gauge the number of SIAM referees who opt in to the service and consider it worthwhile.

• Language editing service for authors: SIAM has partnered with Charlesworth Author Services to provide non-native English-speaking authors (and others) with language-editing and manuscript preparation assistance. Authors, members, and anyone in the applied math community can take advantage of a 10% SIAM discount on Charlesworth’s services, which they can use for journal article editing as well as conference presentations, grant proposals, or other projects. When partnering with other societies, Charlesworth has found that native English speakers also choose to utilize its services to polish their manuscript texts. The SIAM/Charlesworth site will launch soon, at which point we will share the URL with members. 

Finally, SIAM wishes to extend its sincere thanks to Mike Miksis, outgoing Vice President for Publications, for his work and commitment to the SIAM publishing program during his tenure. Howard Elman, former SISC editor-in-chief and member of the Journal Committee, will succeed Mike in 2020. The SIAM Publications team and I look forward to working closely with Howard in the coming years.

In another key transition, we welcome Liliana Borcea as the new editor-in-chief of Multiscale Modeling and Simulation starting January 1. Jack Xin steps down as editor-in-chief after two terms in that role. We thank Jack for his work and leadership over the last six years.

Kivmars Bowling is the director of Publications at SIAM.